DETAINED INTERNATIONAL - ZACK SHAHIN - APPOINTMENT

American businessman Zack Shahin, a former PepsiCo executive and the former CEO of Dubai based property developer Deyaar has appointed Detained International to advise him and his family in his near 2-decade long fight for justice in Dubai.

From Houston, Texas, Zack is believed to be the longest-serving American overseas white-collar prisoner in the world. To date, he has endured 14 years of false imprisonment in Dubai, where he has been subjected to torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, amongst other grave human rights abuses. Zack was held in arbitrary detention for 9 years until 2016 when the Dubai courts sentenced Zack to 47 years for “breach of trust”. Zack is 57 and will die in jail.

Jordan Schneider, Director of US Operations at Detained International said: “As a fellow American, I am appalled at the grave abuses of his human rights Zack is suffering at the hands of Dubai. I am thankful I and the wider team at Detained International are able to provide support and assistance to Zack and his family in their fight for his freedom and ultimately his life.

“Detained International will be providing a more detailed statement on the case in due course”

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Detained international is a legal advocacy NGO that provides pro bono legal advocacy to victims of injustice, inequality and other human rights violations in Dubai, the wider United Arab Emirates, and the Middle East.

Detained International exists to help people in their hour of need, in many cases when they have been locked up far from home for no legitimate or even apparent reason and lack the support from obvious channels like their national embassy. Headquartered in London with an office in Washington DC, Detained International was founded in 2018 by UAE torture victim David Haigh, a prominent human rights lawyer and justice and equality advocate. Detained International has acted on many high profile cases of injustice, including that of HRH Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum, the daughter of the ruler of Dubai.