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The ex-husband of an air stewardess who faced jail in Dubai for attempted suicide after he allegedly abused her says he is now trapped in the UAE and could be arrested imminently.
Irishwoman Tori Towey, 28, was charged with alcohol abuse and attempted suicide on June 28 after she was allegedly attacked by her South African partner in their Dubai home.
Her case sparked international outrage, and help from charities and diplomatic intervention by the Irish government secured her release and return home around two weeks later.
Now her husband has said he is stuck in the country after being handed a travel ban and losing his house and job – with homelessness and failure to pay debts also a crime in the UAE.
Emmerich Basson, 23, who was an Emirates worker like his former partner, has said he is in a ‘dire situation’ and has pleaded for diplomatic intervention from the South African government, but has so far received ‘no help’.
South African national Emmerich Basson, 23, who was an Emirates worker like his former partner, has said he is ‘stuck’ in Dubai
Tori Towey, 28, (pictured) was charged with attempting suicide and had a travel ban imposed on her by Dubai authorities
Towey has since been allowed to return home following an international outcry
Towey was pictured with severe bruising across her body after the alleged abuse by her husband
He said he was handed the travel ban after he ‘walked across the road in front of a Chinese lady’s car’ after going for dinner with his friends in May last year.
At the time, he said, ‘I didn’t think much of it. I got in the taxi and I went home.’
But after going overseas with work for several days, he was unable to re-enter the country, and was detained by immigration officers.
Basson claims they put him in a room for ten hours with ‘no food, no water’ and was not allowed to sleep.
He says he was then asked to remove his uniform and put in handcuffs before being marched to an ‘unlocked van in the middle of the night’, where he was kept alongside ‘hardened criminals’.
He said that Dubai authorities are refusing to drop the case involving the driver and have told him they are still investigating it a year on.
‘I have no passport,’ he said. ‘I have a travel ban on my name. I’ve lost my home. I had to give my dog up for adoption and I am currently staying in a hotel room.
‘I can only stay here for the next two days, after which I will be homeless, which is a crime in the UAE.’
He went on: ‘Since may last year, following this incident I have been under an extreme amount of stress, emotionally and physically and financially. I have lost my job, I cannot pay my debts.
Basson said he was handed the travel ban after he ‘walked across the road in front of a Chinese lady’s car’ after going for dinner with his friends in May last year
‘In the next two days, I will be arrested for not paying my debt.’ He said his family has ‘begged and reached out’ to the South African government to no avail, and that he sees ‘no light at the end of the tunnel’.
Radha Stirling of Detained in Dubai, the organisation which campaigned on Towey’s behalf, has claimed that Basson was charged for swearing at a driver – with ‘obscene acts’ a crime in Dubai.
‘It is a shame he wasn’t prosecuted for the devastating abuse inflicted upon Tori Towey but instead, gets a swearing charge levied against him,’ Stirling said.
‘Better than nothing but also indicative of law enforcement changes that are desperately needed in Dubai.’
Basson has denied all the allegations of domestic abuse. Towey and Basson got married in March of this year, according to South African media.
Towey spoke out this week about her alleged abuse, telling the BBC that it started with ‘a lot of control issues’.
Her husband allegedly abused her in their home in Dubai
‘Obviously in the beginning I didn’t see anything like that. It was when we moved in together,’ she said.
‘I was cut off from my friends, my family. I wasn’t allowed to be on my phone. I was cut of from the rest of the world.’
She said that arguments with her new husband soon turned into emotional, mental and physical abuse.
‘I just couldn’t see a way out, nothing was getting better, it wasn’t ending.,’ she said. ‘At one point, I just thought there is no way out, I can’t leave, I can’t do anything, I’m stuck.’
Towey tried to take her own life, but woke up to several police officers and paramedics surrounding her.
Tori flew into Dublin Airport evening with her mother Caroline , and expressed her gratitude to those who helped her get home
‘Without you guys, I wouldn’t be here right now’, she told journalists.
‘I woke up and they had given me oxygen. I was in my pyjamas, so they got one of my dresses and told me to put it on,’ she said.
They then put her in a police car and took her straight to the station. There, cops ‘strip searched me, they took all my jewellery off,’ she said.
‘I had a belly button piercing and they were struggling to take it out. They were pulling at it and ripping at it, and hurting me. I was saying ‘Look it’s okay, I’ll take it out myself’.
After she was finally freed and able to return home, Towey spoke out about her ordeal in Dubai.
‘Obviously when my mother came out to me it was a massive help, but it was just the unknown and just not knowing anything, not knowing what’s going to happen,’ she said.
‘It’s only kind of between yesterday and today that I kind of got clarity. I wasn’t getting any answers, but I’m just glad to be back.’
