DUBAI // A Lebanese man is facing one month in jail and deportation for wearing a cancer awareness T-shirt depicting a near-naked woman, after losing an appeal yesterday.
In a brief hearing at Dubai Court of Appeals the judge upheld RN's sentence of 30 days in jail followed by deportation on a charge of offending public decency. The defendant was not present. Neither was his lawyer.
According to court records RN, 28, was stopped at a bakery in Dubai on Nov 29 by an Arab man who confronted him over his T-shirt, which showed a nearly nude Victoria Beckham partially covered by the slogan "Protect the Skin You're In".
The shirts were produced by the designer Marc Jacobs for a cancer awareness campaign to aid research at New York University. Celebrities had posed almost nude for pictures that were printed on T-shirts and advertisements. The defendant was employed as a brand manager for Chalhoub Group, which holds the franchise for Marc Jacobs in the region.
An argument ensued between the two, after which RN left to change his shirt, according to court documents. Police were called and three charges were initially pressed against the defendant: drunkenness, fleeing the scene of a conflict and offending public decency. The first two charges have since been dropped.
The defendant was detained for 48 hours, then released on bail. He submitted his passport to the police pending a judgment and was found guilty on April 19. He has been in prison since his first appeal hearing on June 11.
RN has lived in Dubai for the past five years, but grew up in France and Lebanon.
"This T-shirt is a cancer awareness T-shirt, he's working for the brand and he's wearing the T-shirt of his brand," said a friend of several years who was present on the night of the incident, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A Facebook group supporting the defendant that was started by his brother received more than 1,500 requests to join yesterday. The brother declined to comment directly on the case, but he said on Facebook that despite "serious guarantees" that his brother would get out of jail, the judge confirmed the sentence and banned him from the UAE for an unknown duration.
"I would like to thank all of you who showed support, proposed solutions and worked very hard to get him out," he said.
The T-shirt was purchased by RN in New York last summer. Chalhoub Group declined to comment, but an employee said the T-shirts were not sold in the UAE.
Since it began three years ago the "Protect the Skin You're In" campaign has raised more than US$1 million (Dh3.67m) for the NYU School of Medicine's Interdisciplinary Melanoma Co-operative Group.
Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy, a skin-cancer survivor and the president of Marc Jacobs International, persuaded celebrities including Winona Ryder, Naomi Campbell, Rufus Wainwright and Julianne Moore to pose nude for the campaign in 2006. Since then the supermodels Heidi Klum and Helena Christensen and former pop singer Ms Beckham have all joined the campaign.
The defendant's friend said there should be more clarity about the rules of dress in Dubai.
"You can go to the beach and see people wearing very little," he said. "You can go to a mall or nightclub and see people dressed like that."
The British government recently issued new travel advice for visitors to the UAE following a spate of high-profile cases of expatriates' falling foul of the UAE's rules on public behaviour.
The defendant is entitled to lodge a final appeal within 30 days.
lmorris@thenational.ae
myoussef@thenational.ae
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
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If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
It’ll be summer in the city as car show tries to move with the times
If 2008 was the year that rocked Detroit, 2019 will be when Motor City gives its annual car extravaganza a revamp that aims to move with the times.
A major change is that this week's North American International Auto Show will be the last to be held in January, after which the event will switch to June.
The new date, organisers said, will allow exhibitors to move vehicles and activities outside the Cobo Center's halls and into other city venues, unencumbered by cold January weather, exemplified this week by snow and ice.
In a market in which trends can easily be outpaced beyond one event, the need to do so was probably exacerbated by the decision of Germany's big three carmakers – BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi – to skip the auto show this year.
The show has long allowed car enthusiasts to sit behind the wheel of the latest models at the start of the calendar year but a more fluid car market in an online world has made sales less seasonal.
Similarly, everyday technology seems to be catching up on those whose job it is to get behind microphones and try and tempt the visiting public into making a purchase.
Although sparkly announcers clasp iPads and outline the technical gadgetry hidden beneath bonnets, people's obsession with their own smartphones often appeared to offer a more tempting distraction.
“It's maddening,” said one such worker at Nissan's stand.
The absence of some pizzazz, as well as top marques, was also noted by patrons.
“It looks like there are a few less cars this year,” one annual attendee said of this year's exhibitors.
“I can't help but think it's easier to stay at home than to brave the snow and come here.”
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
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Fitness problems in men's tennis
Andy Murray - hip
Novak Djokovic - elbow
Roger Federer - back
Stan Wawrinka - knee
Kei Nishikori - wrist
Marin Cilic - adductor
TOUR RESULTS AND FIXTURES
June 3: NZ Provincial Barbarians 7 Lions 13
June 7: Blues 22 Lions 16
June 10: Crusaders 3 Lions 12
June 13: Highlanders 23 Lions 22
June 17: Maori All Blacks 10 Lions 32
June 20: Chiefs 6 Lions 34
June 24: New Zealand 30 Lions 15
June 27: Hurricanes 31 Lions 31
July 1: New Zealand 21 Lions 24
July 8: New Zealand v Lions
SQUADS
India
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur
New Zealand
Kane Williamson (captain), Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wicketkeeper), Henry Nicholls, Ish Sodhi, George Worker, Glenn Phillips, Matt Henry, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Trent Boult