This is the hellhole Dubai prison where Kinahan Cartel chief Sean McGovern is believed to be incarcerated – ahead of a judicial hearing to approve his extradition home to Ireland.
Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai and an expert in contesting Interpol Red Notices, says extradition targets for international law enforcement are detained in the Dubai Central Prison AKA Al Awir, following arrest for the purpose of extradition.
Ms Stirling told the Sunday World that Sanjay Shah, a British national recently extradited to Denmark on tax fraud charges worth £1.46billion had spent several months at the facility prior to his extradition last December.
“He (McGovern) should be in Dubai Central,” she said, “because that’s where the other people have been kept – such as Sanjay Shah.”
Former inmates of Al Awir, have spoken out in the past about the horror treatment they allege they were subjected to there.
British national, Karl Williams who was jailed for a year in 2012, said in his memoir that he had seen men stabbed to death, had electric shocks administered to his testicles and feared corrupt police would gang rape him.
He described seeing packs of guards standing by without intervening as inmates attacked each other.
“I saw men get stabbed in the neck and others sliced down their faces. Blood splattered every surface as prisoner after prisoner was sliced,” he wrote.
He also said the prison was run by Russian gangsters, who would use HIV-positive inmates to rape and infect others as a means of punishment.
His lawyers claimed Williams had been forced to sign documents in Arabic at gunpoint.
Emirati police denied the allegations.
According to regulations governing Al Awir, prisoners must have a shaved head at all times, starting when they enter and they are punished if their hair gets long, while women reportedly have to wear head coverings.
Punishments include bans on TV and calls to home, with phone access severely limited regardless. Prisoners are rarely allowed visitors.
Several people share beds at a time, with as many as 20 people sharing cells designed for three or four people.
Despite the conditions in Al Awir, Ms Stirling told the Sunday World she believes it likely that McGovern will contest his extradition.
McGovern – one of Daniel Kinahan’s closest and most trusted lieutenants in recent years – was arrested at his home in Dubai early on Thursday.
He has been wanted for several years in this country to face charges in connection with the 2016 murder of 62-year-old Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan.
His detention is the first occasion on which a senior Kinahan cartel figure has been arrested in Dubai as the authorities there have until recently been reluctant to co-operate with extradition requests from western law enforcement agencies.
Ms Stirling said other high-profile criminal targets, including brothers Atul and Rajesh Gupta who were wanted for political corruption in South Africa, have fought successfully, following arrest in Dubai, to avoid extradition.
“It’s been unpredictable as to how they might go,” she said. “Some have been extradited and some have not.
“South Africa has been quite upset about the Gupta brothers, who I understand they have been after for quite a long time.
“They were expecting a more streamlined extradition and they didn’t get it …There have been other cases where requesting countries have tried to extradite and they’ve been given a ‘no’ and that could be on the basis the courts there don’t believe there is sufficient evidence or they don’t believe a crime has been committed.
“Or it could be politically motivated. In many cases, the UAE (United Arab Emirates) will make a decision based on their political relationship with the country seeking extradition and whether there’s some quid pro quo.
“So often, it comes down to the diplomatic effort and a political decision by the rulers of Dubai – the extradition process in Dubai is really unpredictable.
“I can cite examples where someone was expecting to go to trial and they were put on a plane in the middle of the night. That’s against legal procedures.
“It’s more likely he’ll go before a judge and then he can lodge appeal after appeal and go before more judges and take more time. It could be long and complicated if he chooses to contest it.”
Security sources indicated this week that McGovern’s extradition is being seen as something as a test case ahead of an expected attempt in the near future to have Daniel Kinahan extradited home from Dubai.
Welcoming this week’s developments, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said it showed “there is no hiding place” for those involved in organised crime.
Many organised crime gangs think they can evade justice by crossing borders; they cannot,” McEntee said in a statement.
“There can be no hiding place anywhere in the world for criminals.”
Ms McEntee said she was “intensely engaging” with her UAE counterpart about deepening the criminal justice relationship between the two countries.
She added that “good progress” was being made in negotiations between Ireland and the UAE on bilateral treaties and mutual legal assistance.
Last October, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris met senior UAE police officers in Dublin as part of an international investigation into the Kinahan gang.
The delegation’s visit came one day after Minister for Justice Helen McEntee discussed the possibility of a bilateral treaty on extradition with her UAE counterpart.