Mr PALLAS (Tarneit) — I rise to express grave  concern for  the welfare  and treatment of a highly  respected Victorian businessman  who has been working  in Dubai,  Mr Matthew Joyce. In January 2009 Mr Joyce attended a meeting with Dubai police. He was not allowed to leave the meeting and was incarcerated in solitary confinement by Dubai state security for seven weeks. He has  not seen  the light of day since that time. When  he  was  finally allowed to see his wife  a  month later  both his  physical  and mental states  had deteriorated appreciably.  Six months after his incarceration Mr Joyce,  Mr  Marcus Lee and others were charged with bribery  offences  in relation to  a Dubai property  transaction  involving Sunland Group Ltd in 2007.

The Victorian  Supreme  Court considered the  same matter in  December  2011 and unequivocally  found  that Mr Joyce and his co-accused were victims of  a  false complaint to  Dubai authorities by  senior executives of Sunland.  Justice Croft accepted  submissions  against  Sunland  that  Mr  David  Brown’s  contradictory evidence given during the trial pointed to the unreliability of Brown’s evidence and at  one  point  that Brown’s evidence in relation to the bribery allegations indicate very clearly that Brown cannot be taken as a reliable witness of truth. This criminal trial in Dubai took almost  three years  and there were no adverse findings. Mr Joyce and Mr Lee now  face a second trial in Dubai, and  the matter was referred to the  Dubai prosecutor. I  have  written to the  Attorney-General asking him  to alert the embassy of  the United Arab Emirates to the findings of the Supreme Court and to request that this matter be dealt with expeditiously.

See Tim’s speech in Hansard here.