Belgian businessman can leave Dubai two years after “mock trial” | News

Daumerie was barred from leaving Dubai after relations with his local business partner, a prominent family in the emirate, broke down. The investor family Al Owais accused the Belgian of ‘abuse of trust’. At first instance, he was sentenced to a fine of 150,600 euros in what he describes as a mock trial with no right of defence.

The Belgian businessman started an IT company in the United Arab Emirates in July of 2020, but the business venture soon ran into problems. The investor terminated the collaboration and emptied the company accounts.

After a week and a half incarceration, Daumerie had to report to a police station, his passport was taken away and he was banned from traveling. Since then, the Belgian businessman was forced to live in hotel rooms and had to rely on financial support from friends and family.

His lodgings became a costly affair as hotel chains raised their prices in the run-up to the World’s Fair that started in October last year. An opportunity that the country seizes to attract tourism and investment.

Daumerie asked for diplomatic help and (then) Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès (MR) repeatedly expressed her concern about the matter in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the federal parliament. She spoke to her counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan about the matter, but diplomatic efforts to free the Belgian have been difficult.

The fact that entrepreneurship was being encouraged in the region in the meantime did not sit well with the man. He’s not the only foreign businessman to run into the local justice system after a dispute with regime confidants.