Posted on 09/13/2006 7:01:07 PM PDT by Clemenza
Rulers of the United Arab Emirates were accused in a lawsuit of enslaving tens of thousands of boys over three decades and forcing them to work as jockeys in the popular sport of camel racing.
The lawsuit was filed last week by unnamed parents of boys suspected of being abducted, sold and enslaved. They claim more than 30,000 boys could have been victimized and seek class-action status.
The lawsuit alleges Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the crown prince of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, the deputy ruler, were the most active perpetrators.
The lawsuit was filed in Miami because the members of the royal family maintain hundreds of horses at farms in Ocala. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Calls to the United Arab Emirates embassy in Washington, D.C., were not answered and it was not possible to leave a telephone message after hours. A telephone message left at a Kentucky farm owned by the crown prince was not returned.
John Andres Thornton, co-counsel for the children, said the crown prince was served with the lawsuit Monday while buying horses in Kentucky.
The lawsuit claims the boys were taken largely from Bangladesh and Pakistan, were held at desert camps in the UAE and other Persian Gulf nations, and forced to work. It claims some boys were sexually abused, given limited food and sleep and injected with hormones to prevent their growth.
Camel races are immensely popular in the Persian Gulf. The UAE banned the use of children as jockeys — long favored because of their light weight — in 1993, but young boys could still be seen riding in televised races for years afterward.
More news from the only society (muslim nations in general) where slavery and indentured servitude still exist!
What? Our wonderful port operators enslave children for sport and profit??? It must be a lie perpetrated by the Jews /sarc.
Mr. McGreevey! Mr. McGreevey! Your plane to the U.A.E. is boarding!
Mr. McGreevey! Mr. McGreevey! Your plane to the U.A.E. is boarding!
Help me out here, just where was this lawsuit filed? And what evidence have they filed? And why does this court (whatever it is) have jurisdiction?
Those darn camel-jockeys are really something!
FYI,
lj
So that's why Michael Jackson went there...
uhm... is this a euphemism for something entirely different, if you know what I mean?
Didn't Michael Jackson's family move out that way ?
Class action lawsuit--Camel Jockeys vs. Towelheads
P.S I have no idea why that post looks like it does. Test.
Apparently filed in Florida.
Haven't seen the brief, but the allegations are certainly true.
Why does the court have jurisdiction?
Don't know. Maybe there was an American kid. Maybe some US International Rights Treaty is being cited.
In any event, jurisdiction or not, the defendants are crowned sovereigns of massively wealthy oil states. As such, they are immune from prosecution in anybody's courtsunder traditional rules of international law, and they are immune from prosecution anywhere because of the "Golden Rule".
I hate the litigenous society. However, in this case, I hope these people totally impoverish the enslavers, divide their wealth amoung the enslaved children and their families, and reduce these perpetrators to poverty.
PRETTY BOYS - Afghani Wedding Singers Are the Sweetest Plum from the Immersion Reporting issue.
Just a taste of whats in store for Europe.
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