A Dubai resident has spoken of his relief after returning home to his family, almost a year after being detained and prevented from leaving Iraq.
Thomas Simpson, 61, was arrested at Basra International Airport last July, after flying in for work.
He still does not fully understand what he stood accused of, although he knows it related to a job he had in the country two years ago.
Despite attempts to unravel the issue, Mr Simpson is still unclear if he was ever formally charged with an offence.
To meet my kids at the airport was just indescribable. We just held each other so tightly for so long
Thomas Simpson
But he was cleared of any wrongdoing by a court in Erbil. He was finally allowed to leave on July 3 after a no-fly order was removed. In a statement to The National, British authorities said they were aware of his case and had been in contact with Mr Simpson.
The court ruling allowed the Scot to fly into Dubai, where he was reunited with his partner Esme, and children Jamie, 16, and Kane, 13.
The moment the plane took off from Erbil was the “most wonderful feeling”, said Mr Simpson, who has lived in Dubai for 13 years.
“Then to meet my kids at the airport was just indescribable. We just held each other so tightly for so long. And we all sobbed and came home together and it was just the best feeling,” he said.
Mr Simpson spent three "miserable" days in solitary confinement, after being arrested at the airport last July, before his current employer arranged for a lawyer to get him out of prison.
He was able to return to his company's worksite, south of Basra.
“I had to remain there for the next 11 months because I couldn't fly. I couldn’t leave. But at least I was working and earning. And I wasn't in jail anymore,” he said.
Mr Simpson said he understands his arrest related to a joint venture, an oil storage operation involving a Lebanese and local Kurdish company, from 2018 to 2019, which soured.
He worked as the general manager of the site at the time.
His employer, the Lebanese company, eventually pulled out, after which Mr Simpson was “marched off-site by machine gunpoint”.
That was the last he heard of it, until he was arrested in Basra last July.
“I understand the local Kurdish half thought I must have been involved in the dissolution of the joint venture. I wasn’t,” he said.
“I was just there on a purely operational basis to run the facility. That was the most terrifying part of it. It was like, hang on, what have I done wrong? What’s the charge? I still have no idea what the charge was.”
Mr Simpson, who went through four lawyers before finding one who was able to help him, was eventually summoned to Erbil by a judge.
“My colleagues, some of whom are quite connected, arranged for me to be driven to Erbil from Basra," he said.
“They then engaged a security guy who was pretty high up in Basra and he got me through the checkpoints just with his own clout. Because this is how Iraq works,” he said.
The process was supposed to take days, but stretched to weeks, as he gave testimony and was referred to various government departments, including police, immigration and other agencies to help clear his name.
“You get a bit of paper off one guy, then you have to proceed to the next stage,” he said.
“There is no system which says Tom is good to go for the next stage. So that five or six days turned into seven weeks that I spent in a hotel in Erbil.”
He tried to leave the country in late May, but was refused, as the system had not yet been updated to show he had been cleared at that stage.
The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it had been in contact with Mr Simpson.
“Our staff were in contact with a British man following his arrest and travel ban in Iraq,” said an FCDO spokesman.
Mr Simpson said he has been in touch with the wife of Robert Pether, an Australian who has been held without charge for 90 days.
“Tom has was in touch to offer help and provide some advice because he knows what we are going through,” said Desree Pether.
“Tom’s had a similar experience to what my husband is going through right now.”
Mr Pether, an engineer, was arrested along with a colleague when he attended what he thought was a routine business meeting with his employer’s client, the Central Bank of Iraq.
He has remained in custody for 90 days over a contract dispute, without being charged with any offence.
His wife said she was hopeful his case would be heard by the civil court in the near future.
List of officials:
Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Book%20Details
%3Cp%3E%3Cem%3EThree%20Centuries%20of%20Travel%20Writing%20by%20Muslim%20Women%3C%2Fem%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EEditors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiobhan%20Lambert-Hurley%2C%20Daniel%20Majchrowicz%2C%20Sunil%20Sharma%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EIndiana%20University%20Press%3B%20532%20pages%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
THE BIO
Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren
Favourite travel destination: Switzerland
Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers
Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Norway
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Canada
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A Prayer Before Dawn
Director: Jean-Stephane Sauvaire
Starring: Joe Cole, Somluck Kamsing, Panya Yimmumphai
Three stars
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
'The%20Alchemist's%20Euphoria'
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'The Ice Road'
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Stars: Liam Neeson, Amber Midthunder, Laurence Fishburne
2/5
