Israeli reportedly held for nine days in Dubai due to mistaken identity

An Israeli man was jailed in Dubai for nine days in a case of mistaken identity after local authorities believed he owed money for a rental car, according to a Sunday report.

The man, who was not named, had flown from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi for a connecting flight to Cambodia, Ynet reported.

But as soon as he arrived, the police arrested him and took him to Dubai, accusing him of owing a sum of money to a car rental company from a previous visit to the city. Local authorities pointed to his name and date of birth, which matched those of the man they were seeking.

Though the man insisted he had never been to Dubai before, local authorities jailed him. Only after nine days did it emerge that he had the same personal details as another Israeli who did owe money. According to the report, the man does not have a particularly unusual name.

As soon as the error was confirmed, he was released from jail, and Dubai authorities offered to pay for a new flight to complete his connection to Cambodia, the report said.

The man is now considering suing for damages over negligence.

His attorney, Mordechai Tzivin, who represents Israelis held abroad, panned Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Dubai consulate, saying they “completely failed in the substantive and technical treatment of the Israeli.”

“The ministry did not make a satisfactory effort to help the local police and to prove… that there was a mistake in identity,” he said.

In addition, the Israeli consul in Dubai only visited the man on his last day in jail, even though, Tzivin said, ministry procedures are to visit a detainee as soon as possible after learning of an arrest.

“It became clear that, for the most part, requests for help from Knesset members, ministers, community leaders, well-connected fixers in the public system… are useless, complicate the matter, and cause families despair,” Tzivin said, referring to other efforts by the Israeli man’s relatives to see him freed.

By contrast, Tzivin told Ynet that he was sure right from the start that his client would eventually be released by Dubai due to the “high level of fairness in the law enforcement system, and human rights also in the Dubai prisons.”