I admit to any readers out there that I have been very quiet in the blogosphere in 2013; the demands of running a new business together with good old fashioned laziness are the root causes. It's therefore taken an event which ought to send chills down the spine of any Australians working abroad to lull me out of my torpor and back on to the Internet.
This week in Dubai, more than 4 years after his initial arrest, Australian property executive Matthew Joyce was sentenced to 10 years jail and a $25 million fine for his role in a property transaction on the Dubai waterfront which had the effect of leaving one of the local sheikhs out of pocket. The circumstances surrounding the case have been covered extensively in the mainstream press but given the conflicting stories of Joyce and his colleagues and the other main player in the saga, Sunland Group, its impossible for anyone other than the people involved to know what exactly has gone on. However, it is worth noting that the subject matter of the criminal proceedings in Dubai were dealt with extensively in a civil case brought by Sunland in the Victorian Supreme Court, and the judges strongly endorsed Joyce's version of events. Clearly however this has carried no weight and the Dubai court has elected to go its own way and hand down its very onerous judgement against Joyce while interestingly, acquitting his colleague Marcus Lee.
Naturally given the publicity surrounding the case, the Department of Foreign Affairs have been petitioning the Dubai government since Joyce and Lee's arrest with a view to bringing them back to Australia, or at the very least, having the charges against them brought on in a far more expeditious manner than what has occurred. As is now painfully clear given the judgement this week, these entreaties have amounted to very little, at least in Joyce's case. Bob Carr did make the point on television the other night that unfortunately in cases involving expats, there is very little the government can legally insist on via official channels, as you are effectively seeking to intervene in the domestic affairs of another sovereign nation. He also made the observation in relation to the Victorian Supreme Court proceedings that a Dubai court would give us much weight to those deliberations as a crusty old Supreme Court judge would give to proceedings in a Dubai court.
That all may be so, but what he didn't go on to say was that if a Dubai national were charged with fraud in Australia or any other country with a legal system based on the common law, they could expect to receive the same level of justice that an Australian citizen would be entitled to, ie. they could not be held indefinitely without charge, they would have a right to a fair and speedy trial and in the event of being found guilty, they could expect sentencing which would be balanced having regard to the nature and severity of the crime. After being detained in custody for 10 months then placed under house arrest for a further 3 years before copping a ridiculously punitive sentence, Joyce clearly has not received similar treatment.
It is these sorts of differences between how we are used to things working in the Western world and how things operate in places like the Middle East and Asia that ought to serve as a salient warning to any ambitious young Australians looking to make their fortune overseas. The legal protections we offer foreigners in Australia are simply not reciprocated in most other countries, particularly in emerging economies. Their attitude when something goes wrong tends to be along the lines of: "I belong here, you don't; so if you weren't here, this wouldn't have happened, and therefore its your fault that it has." In Joyce's case, a sheikh lost money on a land deal, but it can't be the sheikh's stupid fault for not carrying out proper enquiries in relation to the deal; the blame has to sit with the foreigner who put the deal together.
It's easy to compare Joyce's situation with that of Chappelle Corby or the Bali 9 as another unfortunate Australian who has fallen victim to the punitive legal system of another country, and who must therefore accept his lot. However, this sort of comparison is simply not appropriate. His "crime" if you have to call it that, didn't involve potentially highly damaging activity like trafficking drugs but simply the loss of money - probably a drop in the ocean to the particular sheikh in question. Further, the allegations against Joyce have already been discredited in a competent court of record. On any measure, Joyce has been treated highly unfairly, and in these circumstances, the government can't simply throw up their hands in exasperation a la Bob Carr the other night on television; more must be done by the government to right this dreadful wrong that has been done to one of its citizens.
The problem however is that we currently have a government in this country in terminal decline and one has to wonder, what is their motivation to spend what little political capital they have left on rescuing a lone expat from a legally backward country? The only way to keep this front and centre with the government is not to let the issue go away, which is why family and friends have obviously set up the Bring Matt Home campaign on the internet. If Joyce's plight and DFAT's dithering somehow can become a hot political topic in the lead up to the election, then you can bet more time and effort will be dedicated towards getting him justice.
It is worth also bringing the shadow Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, more into the picture. Bishop has her less endearing qualities but one thing she clearly does not lack is balls, and as a person she is far more likely to stand up to the Dubai government than Bob Carr ever would. Further, sometimes in diplomatic relations, a change of government can act as a form of circuit breaker, as we saw with the Iranian hostage crisis when Reagan took over as President from Jimmy Carter. Who knows, armed with the proper facts, maybe she can succeed where Carr and Rudd have failed?
As for anyone who feels as outraged by all of this as I do, please go to the website below and sign the petition. The good folks behind the website are planning some further publicity and events in the coming weeks as the time for Joyce to lodge his appeal draws near, so stay tuned for some new developments.
www.bringmatthome.com
Also in closing it would be nice if the relevant Sunland executives came forward and told the relevant courts what really happened, but regrettably we will have to wait for Hell to freeze over or more unlikely, Gina Rinehart to fit into a size 10 dress before that ever happens.
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