Caution: Video contains graphic footage that may not be suitable for some readers Blazing stewardesses download.
This link provides access to an exclusive ABC report with video evidence of one of the 22 royal sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates, the powerful brothers who are currently funding the building and managing of NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus, taking part in torture with the help of uniformed UAE police officers.
Sheik Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, the brother of the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, Prince Mohammed, does not play an active part in the UAE government but receives many benefits, including government access, police escorts, monetary support, and the privilege of having a brother as the Minister of the Interior and a brother as the leader of the nation. His actions shown in the video, known to the UAE government, have been reviewed and no action has been taken against him.
The UAE government said in a statement that “all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the Police Department.”
In the video, Issa is seen torturing a grain merchant whom he felt had cheated him over about $5,000 worth of grain.
The event took place at Issa’s royal ranch, miles outside of the UAE’s capital city of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi is also the location of NYU Abu Dhabi, the school’s soon-to-be opened Middle Eastern campus.
“Get closer, get closer, let his suffering show!” Issa yells to the camera man, who is videotaping the event on Issa’s orders so that he may watch it later.
The action in the video is intense:
The man is bound at the ankles and wrists and sand is shoved into his mouth. A gun is fired near his face. The merchant is struck with a cattle prod against his testicles, and it is then inserted into his anus. The man’s testicles are then lit on fire with lighter fluid. He is then beaten with a wooden board with a single protruding nail until the board splits in half. Then, salt is poured into his wounds. The victim is semi-conscious as the Sheikh drives over him in his Mercedes SUV. The man survived, but was taken to a hospital for severe internal organ damage.
Bas Maroosi, a Houston businessman, smuggled the video from the country. About the events in the video, he says, “The whole government is all brothers – what can you do.”
Josh Taylor, the Senior Director for International Communications for NYU Abu Dhabi, speaking on behalf of the administration, has issued the following statement:
“While we’re not at all familiar with the details of the incident, I can say that we, like anyone watching that video, were horrified by the abhorrent acts depicted in it.
We clearly condemn the actions, and have made our Abu Dhabi counterparts aware of our concerns.”
“We clearly condemn the actions, and have made our Abu Dhabi counterparts aware of our concerns.” It’s not unlike telling your sugar daddy you don’t much like his behavior and expecting anything to change.
This was a despicable act. I hope NYU takes more stringent action than merely making “our Abu Dhabi counterparts aware of our concerns.” My immediate reaction is to call for a moratorium on NYU Abu Dhabi until some credible commitment to human rights is made by the UAE government. Knowing that will not happen is tough to swallow. We must advocate for justice.
The NYU admin can’t be surprised by this. Presumably this is fairly common.
While this is clearly a despicable act, the assertion that we should put a moratorium on NYUAD is an overreaction. This is not an instance of our funding abhorrent behavior. On contrary, the government of Abu Dhabi is giving large amounts of money to NYU. To boycott NYUAD out of protest would be akin to the Medical School not accepting federal research money out of protest of the Bush torture and national security policies.
Well, how dare that man attempt to cheat a prince out of 5,000 rubles of grain.
This is a huge issue. I hope NYU takes a legitimate stand against this. It’s just fucking embarrassing.
J-Sex doesn’t care about this kind of thing as long as you have money to give him (for his salary that’s grown incredibly out of step with inflation and job performance!…. wait, I mean, for his students, who he loves!). People have known ever since the University started talking about NYU Abu Dhabi that there were major ethical issues involved in partnering with an oligarchy that has a lousy human rights record. J-Sex didn’t care then and he doesn’t care now. I’m kind of sick to my stomach and more sure than ever that even if Bill Gates wills me his entire fortune someday I wouldn’t give a fucking penny of it back to NYU. Go Bobcats!
I hope Mohammed gave his brother a stern talking-to.
A great day for the Style Issue, eh?
This won’t fit anywhere on the WSN’s front page. Ahahah.
I just ate way too much ice cream cake to be able to watch the video, but man. That’s terrible.
This article is unclear about whether Sheikh Issa is actually involved in funding NYU Abu Dhabi, or if he is just the brother of other leaders who are involved. Do we know who, of the brothers, are the chief funders or what the estimated dollar amount of their backing is?
Can we please focus on the fact that there are people being tortured and not on how this somehow makes NYU look bad? Issa needs to be murdered, John Sexton has nothing to do with it.
Thank you justin.
@ Justin
What I was calling attention to is that this article vaguely insinuates a relationship between NYU and Issa, and that these implications are the reason its posted on NYU Local. Plenty of heinous crimes in national news get totally overlooked by this site, not because they don’t deserve attention, but because they aren’t relevant in the same way. I’m hoping that soon the link between NYU and Issa, if there actually is one, gets clarified.
@Jake Fournier
NYU Abu Dhabi is being completely funded by the Crown Prince of the UAE and his government. His family wealth, as well as those funds attributed to the national government, serves as the financial resource for every course, professor, program, and administrator. NYU is not footing any kind of bill.
While we do not know the total cost of NYUAD, we do know that the nation’s government is fully behind NYU’s success there, and they have put a great amount of wealth into the belief that the campus will succeed.
It is already well known that Abu Dhabi has a less than stellar human rights record. This country is a thugocracy devoid of free expression, and the majority of the residents are essentially indentured servants who are exploited and abused by the over-privileged coterie of shiftless citizens. But NYU is an amoral institution more concerned with attracting cash so it can spend its way up various rankings, regardless of the cost to students, faculty, or the city. President Sexton is like some nouveau-riche gladhander, obsessed with gaining “prestige” and “status” at whatever cost. In his calculus, leeching off of torturers and autocrats is perfectly acceptable. Meanwhile, the rulers of these Gulf states think the same way, and they would rather just buy Western cultural “brands” rather than investing in any educational, cultural or research institutions of their own that might benefit the region as a whole.
damn i’d hate to get on disciplinary probation at NYU Abu Dhabi
@Andrew
I don’t understand your critique of Sexton and NYU’s presence in the UAE. You say “NYU is an amoral institution more concerned with attracting cash …” More concerned with what? You never specify. Is it personal enrichment? John Sexton is a highly accomplished person who could probably be doing something else with more prestige and making much more money than he does today. We lambast bankers for making exorbitant salaries while contributing little to society. Sexton makes a fraction of their salaries and is building a university from scratch in a foreign nation. Of course his motives are not entirely altruistic, I’m sure personal glory has a little to do with it. But, were he a “nouveau-riche gladhander” he would probably not be an academic.
And you make it sound as if development is not an admirable goal for Gulf states. Would you rather the UAE fund religious schools or madrasahs? I would think that a Western university would be a great addition to a developing Gulf state, especially one about which we have human rights concerns. After all, instituting our way through force didn’t quite work out.
I’d like to see TBNYU! go and protest at that campus.