The 13-year-old daughter of a south London property developer on hunger strike in a Dubai prison fears her father will “never come back home”.
Safi Qurashi, 43, from Balham, whose firm paid £39 million in 2008 for the Britain-shaped island in Dubai’s The World development, is said to be in a delicate condition after collapsing in his cell on Friday, more than 40 days into the protest against his sentence.
Today his daughter, Sara, called for him to be freed, saying: “ What if he doesn’t come home? This is not fair, he’s innocent, why is he in there?”
Mr Qurashi was jailed for seven years in 2010 for bouncing cheques worth £50 million during the country’s property crash. He maintains he is innocent. He is one of up to 20 foreigners on hunger strike in Dubai jails accused of bouncing cheques — a criminal offence in the United Arab Emirates.
Sara has made a YouTube video in which she says her father would “rather die than be in prison”. The family, who live in Dubai, claim court reports prove his innocence and that he was a victim of fraud. Dubai’s attorney general and advocate general have reviewed the case and the family will meet them next week, hoping to secure his release.
Mr Qurashi is diabetic and asthmatic. His wife Huma, 41, said Sara and her brother Yusuf, six, and sister Maaria, 11, can only visit him on Saturdays for 15 minutes. They must use an intercom and can only see him through a screen. Mrs Qurashi said: “I feel really concerned about Safi and his health, and the children are suffering.”
The World, a man-made archipelago shaped like the globe’s landmasses, hit trouble when Nakheel Properties, the developer, admitted it could not pay its debts. Mr Qurashi intended to turn his 11-acre island into a resort.
Today the Foreign Office said: “We have been in regular touch with him and his family and continue to provide consular assistance and advice. However, we cannot interfere in another country’s legal and judicial process.”
