- Ian Mackellar, 74, is facing time in prison for asking people to turn music down
The wife of a British pensioner who faces jail time in Dubai for complaining about a noisy party says he may not survive in prison and could seek into a ‘deep, deep depression‘.
Ian Mackellar, 74, is a retired economics lecturer who was arrested for trespassing when he went to complain about a noisy New Year Party.
He faces up to a year in prison and his wife Carol, who he has been married to for 49 years, is desperately appealing to politicians and lawyers, as well as the British embassy, for help.
But Ms Mackeller, who is recovering from colon cancer, says no one will help them and she fears her husband – who faces a year in prison and deportation – will not survive in prison abroad.
Speaking to The Times, Ms Mackeller said: ‘If Ian goes to prison, I just know he could not survive that.
‘I am dreading never seeing him again. We just need somebody to help us.’
She also added that she fears her husband, who has a stent in his heart and whose travel insurance has run out, was ‘in danger of sinking into a deep depression’.
The Scottish couple, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, live on a UK state pension and have already spent around £8,000 on legal fees.
Radha Stirling, their lawyer, said: ‘Ian could be waiting four to six months just for a court date.’
The couple had been visiting their daughter, who had recently moved to Dubai for a new job when they found themselves embroiled in a dispute with aggressive locals.
Mr Mackeller was helping babysit his 18-month-old granddaughter when he asked a nearby party to keep it down.
‘We’re Scottish,’ Ms Mackeller added, ‘we’re well aware of the importance of Hogmanay.
‘I don’t have a problem at all with a party but it was so loud the windows were rattling.’
The Mackellers’ daughter was anxious about starting work at 5.30am and their granddaughter could not sleep.
Their daughter posted in a local residence Facebook group asking the neighbours to turn the noise down, but the music became louder.
Mr Mackeller, with his granddaughter in his arms, knocked on the door of the house party but received no reply.
So he walked into the back garden when suddenly three men and the host rushed at him and pushed him.
When he left, the host who was a Lebanese woman who had lived in the UAE for years, followed him into the street shouting and swearing at him.
She then threw a drink at him and the baby and when he returned home he was ‘soaking wet’.
Ms Mackeller talked him out of calling the police as UAE has strict laws for foreigners and the party finally wound down at 3.30am.
But on January 2, police knocked at the door as the neighbours had reported Ian for trespassing.
He was questioned for hours and was told he was lucky as if he had been younger he would have been thrown in jail immediately.
Officers say the neighbour is refusing to drop the charges.
The charges also mean that he is unable to leave the country.
His wife, who has been able to return to the UK in time for a hospital appointment, said she ‘has no idea when Ian will be allowed to come home’.
She told the BBC her husband was a ‘placid man’, a ‘devoted dad and husband’.
As legal experts and his MP fight for his release, Mr Mackellar’s wife warned that her husband is ‘very stressed’ and has a heart issue.
‘I just want him home,’ she said.
A spokesman for their MP, Andrew Bowie, Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire told MailOnline: ‘Andrew has engaged with the Foreign Office after being contacted by Mr McKellar, and has given details of his case to the relevant minister.
‘Andrew’s office are giving Mr McKellar’s family advice and support, and are working to help get him the medical help he needs.’
Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, said: ‘This is a very sad situation. Nobody would ever imagine that a polite request to turn the music down would result in a travel ban and criminal prosecution.
‘Again and again, we are reminded that a simple trip to Dubai can indeed be a one-way ticket.
‘If the case isn’t dropped, Ian will likely end up in prisons notorious for human rights violations, and he simply doesn’t deserve it.’
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