Fears for Australian duo held in Dubai 7.30 By Matt Peacock
Updated 31 minutes ago Video: Concerns grow for Australians held in Dubai (7.30) Map: United Arab Emirates
Fears have been raised for the welfare of two Australian men who have been detained in Dubai for four years on corruption charges after a property deal turned sour.
Marcus Lee and Matthew Joyce are accused of fraud against their former employer, a property development company owned by the emir of Dubai.
In a parallel legal case in Australia, the principals of the property developer that reported the pair to the Dubai authorities were found to be not telling the truth.
The chairman of that Queensland-based company now admits that, at least in the case of Lee, his company's allegations are not true.
Joyce and Lee were arrested in January 2009 as the building boom in the Gulf state went bust during the global financial crisis.
They spent seven weeks in solitary confinement in a police lock-up and were kept in jail another four months before they learnt about the corruption charges against them.
Their wives had to surrender their passports to secure their husbands' bail. They are still not allowed to leave Dubai.
Lawyer John Sneddon has told 7.30 he is "very concerned for their welfare".
"I've watched my clients deteriorate remarkably over the course of the four years that I've been involved in this case," he said.
"Their condition is terrible, really. Both Marcus and his wife Julie are in a very bad financial and medical situation.
"They've had to sell everything they own and their health has obviously suffered immensely having spent four years in this pressure cooker that they're in at the moment in Dubai."
Lee and Joyce blame their predicament on evidence provided to the Dubai authorities by Gold Coast developer group Sunland.
Its executive chairman, Soheil Abedian, has spoken exclusively to 7.30 and is unapologetic.
"I really feel sorry for the family. I think that their family, they don't deserve what has happened to them," he said.
"[But] I believe any single individual that is in any foreign jurisdiction and is involved in any kind of business, they should uphold the law of that country." Property boom
In 2006 Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum dreamed of transforming Dubai into a tourist mecca.
Australian Cris Johansen worked as project manager for the sheik's development company, Nakheel.
"By the time Nakheel was at its peak, there would have been several thousand expats from around the world - from Australia, South Africa, NZ, the US, the UK - basically every country in the world was represented there," he said.
Among the other expats working for the sheik were Joyce and Lee.
Joyce was in charge of a Nakheel subsidiary called Dubai Waterfront; Lee was his commercial director.
Also joining the stampede for a piece of the action in Dubai was Sunland, headed by Mr Abedian.
"The market was one of the strongest markets that anybody knows," Mr Abedian said.
"From the time that somebody purchased a block of land until the settlement, usually an average seven times it would change hands before the property would settle."
The deal that landed the two Australians behind bars involved a key block of waterfront land.
Sunland was planning a joint venture with another Australian, Angus Reed, and his company, Prudentia, to buy the block.
But just before the purchase, Sunland decided to go it alone and paid Prudentia $14 million to walk away.
Sunland bought the block itself and looked set to make a handsome profit, but in 2008 the global financial crisis burst the bubble.
In the middle of the financial wreckage, Dubai authorities launched a series of investigations into foreign deals.
Sunland's chief officer in Dubai, David Brown, was arrested and his passport confiscated as authorities investigated whether the $14 million payment was a bribe.
A few weeks later Lee and Joyce were arrested and jailed.
Mr Brown, horrified that he might be found guilty, accused Joyce and Lee of fraud.
He claimed to have invented a story for the Dubai prosecutor that the $14 million was paid because Joyce had convinced him Prudentia had first rights over the property.
Mr Brown, now safely back on the Gold Coast, would not talk to 7.30.
But Mr Abedian is standing by Mr Brown's story.
"If I do anything wrong in Dubai, I deserve to be punished as well. If somebody from Dubai comes here and does something that is illegal, the judiciary will ultimately be the judge," he said. 'Hopeless' case
In fact, an Australian judge has ruled on the case.
Sunland sued Joyce and Prudentia in the Victorian Supreme Court for misleading behaviour.
But a judge found its case was "hopeless" and was launched for the "ulterior motive" of securing Mr Brown's release in Dubai.
The judge found the story about Joyce and Lee was invented, and the evidence of Mr Brown and Mr Abedian was "fanciful", "unreliable", "inaccurate" and "not believable".
Sunland is appealing the judgment.
While Sunland continues to insist that Joyce is guilty, despite the Victorian ruling, it now admits Lee has done nothing wrong.
"From Sunland's side we do not have any claim against Marcus Lee," Mr Abedian said.
"A letter has been sent, but more importantly Mr Brown was asked to give a statement in the court, when the court was going, and that point was quite clear.
"He said that Mr Marcus Lee has nothing to do with that case as long as we know."
Mr Sneddon says that is not good enough.
"The problem is that's not what Sunland said to the authorities in Dubai," he said.
"In January and February 2009, Sunland manager in Dubai, David Brown, gave two written statements to the authorities in which he outlined his theory that Marcus was involved in this bizarre conspiracy to deceive Sunland.
"So it is all well and good for them to say now that they think he is innocent, but that is not what they have said to the authorities in Dubai."
Sunland is also under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for repeatedly telling the stock exchange it was not under investigation in Dubai for bribery when the Victorian Court found that it was.
After four years' detention in the Arab emirate, having paid huge legal fees and expenses, both Lee and Joyce have nearly run out of money.
Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has urged the Australian Government to take stronger action to see the men released.
"If the case is to go on and on another four years before the courts, a very probably conviction - 99 per cent conviction rate for aliens tried in Dubai - which is pretty high," he said.
"I believe the Government should have done much more - especially in the light of the Victorian Supreme Court judgment which has said in the most emphatic terms said that these two Australians are innocent."
