DUBAI // On each of the 28 days he spent in prison, Adam Foster called his family in the US at 7am to reassure them he was all right.
At 4pm on Tuesday, Mr Foster had better news to report: he was a free man.
And by the same time yesterday he was at Dubai International Airport waiting to catch a flight home.
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The engineer had been sentenced to a month in prison on May 11 for being in possession of lost police handcuffs.
Mr Foster, 30, said his girlfriend and family were waiting eagerly for him after hearing he would be heading home to upstate New York.
He said his mother, sister and girlfriend started crying when he revealed his news, while he could hear his father’s glee in the background.
“They are very excited about my return,” Mr Foster said.
More than four months have passed since he arrived in the UAE on January 24 to work for the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority.
Mr Foster said he managed to get his passport yesterday with the help of his lawyer, expediting his return to the family who will be waiting for him at the airport.
He said his time in prison had taught him to appreciate the small things in life.
“In the first five days I slept without a pillow, a tiny thing that we take for granted,” Mr Foster said.
But on the whole, he said, his weeks in prison were better than expected. He spent most of his time making friends and playing cards.
Mr Foster even made a friend on the bus taking him to prison, and when he arrived everybody wanted to talk to him because he was new and they were bored.
“I expect e-mails from some of them,” he said. “The experience wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I met an American inside and made other friends, 95 per cent of whom are there for cheque cases and are businessmen.”
Mr Foster shared a large room with 94 other prisoners of different nationalities.
“The guards were fine but the food was awful,” he said, adding that he made do with crackers, chocolates and other items he bought from the canteen.
He even ordered food from outside twice in his jail term. “One is allowed to order from outside twice a week.”
Mr Foster originally confessed to stealing the handcuffs from a desk at the Jebel Ali Police Station after being picked up for a background check.
He later denied stealing them and said he found them in a mall parking area. The handcuffs were found in his luggage as he was leaving Dubai International Airport.
Mr Foster said his employer, Cameron International, supported him and continued to pay his salary, while their office in Abu Dhabi helped him in every way they could.
“They even paid for my lawyer and I really owe them a lot,” he said, adding his manager had been in constant contact with him.
After he spends a week with loved ones, his job with Cameron, the oil and gas services company based in New York, will be waiting for him.
“I would love to spend more time with my friends and family but my work has done so much for me and I owe them,” Mr Foster said.
salamir@thenational.ae
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The biog
Favourite film: Motorcycle Dairies, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Kagemusha
Favourite book: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Holiday destination: Sri Lanka
First car: VW Golf
Proudest achievement: Building Robotics Labs at Khalifa University and King’s College London, Daughters
Driverless cars or drones: Driverless Cars
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
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Rating: 4.5/5
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Manchester City 6 Huddersfield Town 1
Man City: Agüero (25', 35', 75'), Jesus (31'), Silva (48'), Kongolo (84' og)
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Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
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Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
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The trio have been guided by experts from the industry over the course of nine months, as they developed their own products that merge their unique styles with traditional elements of Emirati design. This includes laboratory sessions, experimental and collaborative practice, investigation of new business models and evaluation.
It is led by British contemporary design project specialist Helen Voce and mentor Kevin Badni, and offers participants access to experts from across the world, including the likes of UK designer Gareth Neal and multidisciplinary designer and entrepreneur, Sheikh Salem Al Qassimi.
The final pieces are being revealed in a worldwide limited-edition release on the first day of Downtown Designs at Dubai Design Week 2019. Tashkeel will be at stand E31 at the exhibition.
Lisa Ball-Lechgar, deputy director of Tashkeel, said: “The diversity and calibre of the applicants this year … is reflective of the dynamic change that the UAE art and design industry is witnessing, with young creators resolute in making their bold design ideas a reality.”
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Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
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Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Who's who in Yemen conflict
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The Written World: How Literature Shaped History
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Granta
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Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
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Barcelona 2
Suarez (10'), Messi (52')
Real Madrid 2
Ronaldo (14'), Bale (72')
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
