Word: dubai
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...home in Paris that Bastille Day holiday, Alexandre's mother Véronique got the call at four in the morning telling her what had happened. "My instinct was to get on the first plane to Dubai," she says. But another instinct kicked in too - that of a veteran political journalist, with connections at the top levels of the Elysée Palace and the French foreign ministry. Within minutes of speaking to Alexandre, Véronique Robert - who spent years as a producer for Canal Plus Television - woke up French diplomats in Dubai, who dispatched the consulate's attorney...
...neither recorded nor translated, according to Véronique Robert, citing accounts from Alexandre and his father. The police doctor who examined Alexandre declared that there was no physical sign of rape, and suggested that Alexandre was instead concealing his homosexuality. Homosexual sex is a criminal act in Dubai, punishable with one year in jail...
...consulate attorney delivered dramatically different results. After he persuaded Dubai police to take a new statement from Alexandre, police arrested and charged two men within hours, thanks to the license plate Alexandre had glimpsed in the near-dark, and Alexandre's ability to spot them in a police lineup. The two men go on trial this Wednesday, charged with "forced homosexuality," knife-wielding and kidnapping; the third suspected attacker - the acquaintance of Alexandre - will stand trial in a juvenile court...
...Despite that, Dubai officials reported three times that the two suspects were not infected with the HIV virus, according to French diplomats, even though that appears to be untrue. A document released by government officials to French diplomats in August showed that one man had tested positive while in prison four years ago. Alexandre will receive word only in January whether he was infected during the alleged attack. "There is a lot of malfunctioning, but from where I do not know," says a French diplomat in Dubai, explaining the bungling over the AIDS tests. In late October, the French foreign...
...French officials in Dubai have offered Alexandre diplomatic protection this week in Dubai; he and his mother fly from Paris on Tuesday to attend the trial. "Let's be honest, I never wanted to go back but I want justice, so I have to," Alexandre told TIME in Paris on Monday...