British tourist beaten to death in Dubai police station - 'for swearing'

A British tourist has been beaten to death by officers in a Dubai police station - after being arrested for swearing, it is claimed.

Lee Bradley Brown, 39, was believed to have been staying on his own at a £1,000-a-night hotel, the Burj al Arab (pictured), when he was arrested.

Police sources allege that on arrival he was 'badly beaten up' by a group of police officers, leaving him unconscious on the floor.

Inmates told how they then watched officers bundle him into a body-bag and drag him out of the building.

Mr Bradley Brown was held for six days in Bur Dubai police station. During that time, he was not allowed access to a lawyer, or given enough food or water, it is alleged.

His family knew nothing about his plight until Mr Brown's sister received a phone call from an inmate claiming her brother had been beaten.

The prisoner had found her phone number on a photocopy of her brother's passport which had been left behind in the cell.

She contacted the British Embassy in Dubai, and an official was sent to visit Mr Bradley Brown at the police station.

However, the official was turned away by an officer who claimed Mr Bradley Brown did not want to see him and had 'declined consular assistance'.

His sister, who did not want to be named, then received another phone call from the inmate saying he had seen her brother's body being taken out in a body-bag.

A source told the Daily Mail last night: 'He suffered a really bad beating which must have caused some terrible internal injuries.

'The poor bloke stood no chance at all. At one stage he was thrown against the concrete wall of a cell and landed badly.

'Then the guards tried to hush it up and pretend nothing had happened.'

Bur Dubai police station is notoriously violent place, where allegations of beatings, starvation, rape and the force-feeding of drugs are common-place.

Foreign prisoners are often kept in cramped cells with up to 20 inmates for weeks for trivial offences.

Human rights charities say police officers regularly refuse to allow inmates to make a phone call or access to a lawyer.

Mr Bradley Brown's sister told the Daily Mail: 'The inmates we spoke to at the jail are currently waiting to give statements to the police.

'But they're now in fear for their own lives.'

Mr Brown, who ran a maintenance business, was arrested on April 6 over allegations of assault, intimidating behaviour and using abusive language, said a source at Dubai Public Prosecution.

A British Embassy spokesman said: 'I can confirm the man died in custody and that the embassy is taking the allegations very seriously. We are launching an investigation and working with Dubai police.'

A Dubai police spokesman said they would carry out their own investigation once the results of a post-mortem examination, which may take three days, are known.