From CNBC:About 20 jailed foreign businessmen have gone on hunger strike in Dubai to protest against lengthy sentences for writing checks that bounced, a criminal offence in the United Arab Emirates.
Many of the hunger strikers fell victim to Dubai’s once-thriving real estate market, struggling to meet their payments when boom turned to bust in 2008. Twelve face sentences of more than 20 years because each bounced check can translate into a jail term of up to three years.
Mr. Margetts has served three years of a more than 20-year sentence for 49 bounced checks. The checks bounced after a fraudulent developer stole money from him, he said. “Obviously it’s at the beginning [of the hunger strike] but I’m a strong sort of character—I got myself out of a really difficult life, I’ve always been a fighter I’m not going to give up,” he said.
Christopher Renehan, a 38-year-old Irishman and a partner in a contracting company, started the hunger strike last week. Late payments from clients meant checks he had written on behalf of his company bounced. The strike has served to highlight the archaic foundations of Dubai’s financial system, where failing to honor a check remains a crime. Post-dated checks are used for security on anything from car leases to rentals to multimillion-dollar property deals.
