A British teenager jailed in Dubai for a holiday romance with a year-old girl is set to lodge a pardon request believed to be supported by foreign secretary David Lammy. Marcus Fakana, now 19, from Tottenham, has prepared a plea to the ruler of the UAE, who is understood to have intervened in cases where tourists have fallen foul of his country's laws in the past.
The teen's pardon request is expected to be accompanied by a letter of support from the Foreign Secretary , who has previously been accused of not doing enough to help Fakana. The young construction apprentice is currently serving a one-year sentence in one of Dubai's most notorious jails. He was arrested in August after he had consensual sex with a year-old from London during a holiday in the UAE city with his parents.
The girl was just one month away from turning 18, but sex with anyone under the age of 18 is an offence in the Gulf State. Radha Stirling said according to The Mirror : 'The British Embassy has been in touch with Marcus while in prison on a regular basis and a pardon application has been prepared.
Marcus Fakana pictured , now 19, from Tottenham, has prepared a plea to the ruler of the UAE, who has intervened in similar cases involving tourists in the past. Pictured is the high-security al-Aweer prison where Fakana is serving his sentence. The jail houses some of Dubai's worst offenders, including murderer, terrorists and rapists.
However, he called on the foreign secretary to do more saying that he shouldn't just be providing a letter of support and 'wiping his hands' of the situation. Fakana recently celebrated his 19th birthday in the maximum-security al-Awir prison, which houses death row inmates, murderers, terrorists and violent gangsters. The detention centre is notorious for its cramped conditions, where 20 inmates are often into cells designed to house just three to four people. Prisoners have previously claimed to have been tortured for confessions, and rape is reportedly an 'everyday occurrence', carried out by both inmates and guards.
