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A British woman accused a key member of the UAE royal family of sexual harassment. This accusation has shocked many after it was leaked this month.
The 32-year-old woman’s name is Caitlin McNamara. He detailed his accusations in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times.
Caitlin McNamara was in Abu Dhabi in February this year. There he was working in the organization of ‘O Sahitya Utsav’. He then met with the 79-year-old Minister of Tolerance in a secluded palace. Caitlin McNamara said she was sexually assaulted there.
Minister Sheikh Nahyan Al Nahyan, however, denies the accusations. He is a high-ranking member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The house he owns in Britain is worth millions of pounds.
Caitlin McNamara returned to Britain and gave details of the alleged sexual assault to the London Metropolitan Police last July.
For whatever reason, a formal investigation has yet to be launched. One of them is that the incident took place in a different country, which is outside the jurisdiction of the London Metropolitan Police. The UAE police have no complaints about the incident. And the person against whom this accusation has been made, as a member of the royal family, enjoys the right to “sovereign protection.” That is, you cannot be tried for any charge.
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC works as an attorney for Caitlin McNamara. In an interview with BBC Radio Four’s Women’s Hour, she said she wanted the British government to put pressure on the UAE over the incident. However, he acknowledged that it would be difficult to do so legally.
‘Hey Festival’ has expressed anger at the incident. They said they would not hold the festival in Abu Dhabi while the accused minister was in office.
However, so far no response has been received from the UAE. Only a lawyer for Minister Sheikh Nahyan Al Nahyan has issued a statement denying the allegations and expressing dissatisfaction with the way the allegations have been made public.
Sheikh Nahyan has been the Minister of the United Arab Emirates since 1992. He is a well-known and respected person in his own country. He has not yet been fired.
Diplomatic storm
The relations of the Arab Gulf countries with Great Britain are very close. But some incidents like this are creating a serious crisis from time to time. This time it’s such a serious accusation.
Britain’s relations with the Arab Gulf states have been strained since the 1970s. That year, a documentary called “The Death of a Princess” was shown on ITV, a British television channel. The ceremony was about the public beheading of a Saudi princess and her boyfriend.
As a result of promoting the program, Britain lost around £ 250 million in trade with Saudi Arabia. Now many may have forgotten about that incident.
The situation of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia is now slowly improving. But their situation is still very different from the rest of the world.
Another incident took place in 1984. Sir James Craig, the outgoing British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, sent a secret diplomatic message to his superior in London. There, he said, the Saudi government was “incompetent and completely isolated from what was happening in the world around them, completely ignorant of the world.”
This top secret diplomatic message was leaked. This created a mortal embarrassment for the British Foreign Office.
Another incident occurred in 2016. The United Arab Emirates arrested Matthew Hedges, a British student studying for a PhD in Dubai that year. That is a huge thorn in the side of Great Britain and the United Arab Emirates.
Matthew Hedges’ research focused on the security of Arab countries after the lifting of the Arab Spring. But UAE officials claim they have found something on Matthew Hedges’ laptop that proves he is a spy. Matthew Hedges denies the allegations.
Matthew Hedges was detained for several months. He was later pardoned and released. But Matthew Hedges alleges that he was subjected to mental torture while in solitary confinement.
The United Arab Emirates still believe that Matthew Hedges was a spy. But Britain says he was not a spy.
Earlier this year, shortly before the Covid-19 epidemic spread across the world, a heated legal battle broke out in London’s High Court. On one side of the problem is the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Makhtum. His ex-wife, Princess Haya of Jordan, on the other hand.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Makhtum did his best not to divulge the serious allegations made by Princess Haya. But the verdict of the court judges was against him.
Following the verdict, 70-year-old Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, a world-famous horse racer, was caught red-handed. Britain’s Ascot is one of the most famous horse racing competitions in the world. Every year Sheikh Mohammad is seen there very close to the Queen of Great Britain.
After the High Court verdict, the world learned how Sheikh Mohammed’s two daughters were locked up after being kidnapped when they tried to flee the family.
The verdict against London High Court Judge Sheikh Mohammed further said that he had made several attempts to intimidate and harass his ex-wife. Princess Haya then fled to Britain with her children last year. He said he feared for his life.
Following the leak of this incident, it caused quite a stir in the horse racing world. At that time, some people also demanded that everyone break ties with Sheikh Mohammad.
The most contentious relationship between Britain and the six Gulf states is with Saudi Arabia. The Saudi judiciary is very opaque, arbitrary and criticized. There have been many reports of human rights violations. Organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have collected evidence of many of these human rights abuses.
But the British regime is governed in such a way that politicians from Whitehall view Saudi Arabia from a different perspective. They believe that Saudi Arabia is the most important security wall to prevent Iran’s influence in the Middle East.
In addition, thousands of British citizens work in the Arab states of the Gulf. Especially in the defense sector.
The attacks were carried out by the Royal Saudi Air Force in its fight against Yemen, using fighter jets and bombs sold by Britain. The catastrophe caused by this war is the most serious humanitarian catastrophe in the world according to the United Nations.
But the event that shocked the world the most was the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He was assassinated in October 2016 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. After the murder, his body was dismembered. His remains have not yet been found.
Western intelligence agencies believe that the incident was likely a conspiracy by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, he has denied it.
Last July, Saudi Arabia imposed sanctions on 20 Saudi officials for the incident. But there have been no signs of a rift between Britain and Saudi Arabia.
The impact of skyscrapers
There are many reasons why such a scandal has no adverse effect on the proximity of the Arab Gulf states to Great Britain. This relationship is more likely to be closer in the coming days. Unless Britain suddenly changes its policy completely.
The current instability in the Middle East, where Britain views Iran and the Islamic State as security threats, sees the monarchies of the Persian Gulf states as its necessary allies.
British Royal Air Force fighter jets regularly fly to Gulf air bases. Bahrain has a permanent British naval base: HMS Jufair.
Britain has a joint fleet of Typhoon fighter jets with Qatar. Oman is also allowing Britain to use a variety of military installations. Britain is using them at an increasing rate.
And there are reasons why the Gulf countries have become so rich in terms of oil and gas sales.
Together with the markets of these six Gulf countries, outside the European Union, they are the UK’s third most important trading partner. Hundreds of billions of pounds are invested in Great Britain from these countries. In a recent interview with The National, a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged the importance of the region to Britain.
So in such a situation, two things can be said for sure. The first is that many more incidents of this type will continue to be filtered. And second, the public relations consultancies that the Persian Gulf states hire to maintain their image will be able to do good business for many years to come.
Source: BBC
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