Guards boasted about “beating the s***” out of a British holidaymaker in a notorious United Arab Emirates police station days before he died, an inquest has heard.
Lee Brown, 39, was left to die “like a dog” at the Bur Dubai police station, jurors were told.
Fellow inmates said it appeared he was having a psychotic episode when he was taken there and behaved erratically.
One said Mr Brown spoke about being “the Muslim Jesus”, while another said he had spoken about having been abducted by aliens.
After being arrested and taken to the police station on 7 April 2011, he was taken to the prosecutor’s office a day later, where his behaviour is said to have been erratic and offensive.
On his return, he was allegedly beaten and kicked in the head by guards before being placed in solitary confinement, where he barely ate or drank and began to lose consciousness. He died five days later.
One detainee, referred to as Detainee One, told jurors in a written statement read by the coroner: “On 7 April 2011 a white British man was bought into the courtyard and was behaving very abnormally. He was shouting and swearing.
“He was very loud and guards and prisoners were becoming noticeably annoyed by his behaviour.
“It was abusive but not physical or threatening in any way.
“His behaviour caused people to become perplexed and annoyed as he was using foul language which some of the Muslim prisoners took great offence to.
“I was disturbed but mainly felt sorry for him as he genuinely seemed really unwell.
“He was shouting all kinds of things, some of which made sense and some of which did not.
“He had no capacity to rationally think through the situation and identify a course of action that would allow him to resolve matters.
“I had developed a soft spot for him and thought he was a bit crazy but was quite friendly and pleasant.
“On 8 April I pieced together various accounts from other prisoners who had also been there (to the prosecutor’s office) who said Lee had taken down his trousers and made rude and inappropriate remarks to the prosecutor, and had referred to genitals which infuriated the authorities who had ordered he be put in isolation.
“I was told he was beaten up at the prosecutor’s office and then beaten in the van. I was told by many prisoners guards had boasted about having beaten him.
“One prisoner said they heard guards say they ‘beat the s***’ out of him.
“I went to the door (of the solitary cell) around 15 times in the next few days but he never responded.
“There is no dispute he was inside. He was either unconscious or semi-conscious.
“A prisoner told me he had said ‘help me’ to them.
“One day I woke up and heard simply that he had died. He was simply left to die on his own like a dog.”
Detainee Two said in a statement: “When he got back from the prosecutor’s office he was bleeding head to toe and there were marks on his wrists.
“There were no marks on him before he went to the prosecutor.
“He said he had been beaten and kicked in the head.
“Later that evening there was still bleeding on his head. I said to the guards ‘let him out’ and they said ‘he is mad.’ “Lee was saying ‘help me, help me, I am going to die’.
“On 12 April an inmate came down and asked for Lee’s passport. He asked for it ‘because the British fellow had died.’ “They took Lee out in a bag.”
Detainee Three said when Mr Brown arrived, he claimed he had been abducted by aliens.
On his return from the prosecutor’s office his wrists were bleeding and he was handcuffed.
They added: “He said he had been shot by the police but obviously he had not been shot.
“He should have been put on a psychiatric ward.
“He could not move; it was like medieval torture handcuffing someone in that way.”
His mother Doris Brown told the court: “He was having a breakdown. He was saying he was Jesus, I didn’t realise how bad he was.
“Every now and again he would see aliens or something and he believed it.
“At the time before he left he was not himself and I could tell he was not himself.
“He was a happy and family-oriented person who was very hardworking.”
A spokesperson at the UAE embassy in the UK said: “The jury’s verdict did not determine a cause of Mr Lee’s death, nor any unlawful killing. To the extent the jury speculated about factors for his death, the UAE completely rejects this speculation. The UAE notes also there were serious irregularities in the inquest process and treatment of evidence, which may provide grounds for review.
“The Walthamstow coroner’s court ignored the prior findings of the High Court, the initial coroner’s court, and medical authorities in both the UK and the UAE. It relied on unsubstantiated, third-hand, hearsay claims by former anonymous prison inmates who relayed by way of written statements that they had ‘been told’ by other prisoners that they had ‘overheard’ guards speaking about beating Lee.
“In contrast, the UAE’s evidence, including medical records and the prosecutor’s reporting, appears not to have been properly considered.
“The allegations were thoroughly investigated in 2011 by both UAE medical authorities and police, and also by a British consultant pathologist appointed by Mr Brown’s family. Dubai medical examiner Dr Yosri Habib reported in 2011 that only minor injuries could be found on Mr Brown’s body, caused four or five days prior to his death, which ‘bore no relationship to the death’.
“Forensic pathologist Dr Ben Swift, appointed by Mr Brown’s family, corroborated Dr Habib’s findings, concluding that there were ‘no significant injuries’ on Mr Brown’s body, and ‘no injuries present either externally or internally that could account for his death’.
“This evidence, in addition to a series of medical reports and witness statements provided to the initial inquest in 2011, led that coroner to return an open verdict in Mr Brown’s death, meaning the cause of his passing could not be determined.
“In 2015, a High Court case brought by Mr Brown’s family challenging the coroner’s verdict also concluded that ‘there was no evidence of this being a violent death’. The judgment of Lord Justice Bean and the chief coroner noted that ‘a number of rumours circulating after Lee’s death’ suggested he had been beaten to death in prison. ‘But the medical evidence, from both Dubai and England, showed otherwise,’ the High Court determined.”
Additional reporting by SWNS
This report was updated on 9 November 2022 to include the embassy’s response
