United Arab Emirates Prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates gave a rare progress report into their ongoing investigation into the highly sensitive torture allegations against a member of the country's ruling family that has shocked this Gulf nation.

The state-run WAM news agency said prosecutors have been investigating "events depicted on video," allegedly showing a half brother of the Emirates' president, sodomizing and beating another man and firing an automatic weapon into the sand around him.

The disgrace over allegations against Sheik Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been without precedent for the ruling family, considered untouchable in this Arab federation of seven semi-independent sheikdoms in the Persian Gulf.

But earlier this year, officials acknowledged the sheik had appeared in a torture video. They started a criminal investigation two months ago and put Issa under house arrest in May.

WAM's report late Monday gave few details, but said the investigation against Issa "is still ongoing" in the Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi.

"The Abu Dhabi Prosecution is currently carrying out its investigation and engaging with those involved in the case in order to reach a clear understanding of ... circumstances and to ensure that justice is served," the report said.

Torture allegations against Issa surfaced a year ago as part of a U.S. lawsuit, filed by his former business associate and a Texas businessman Bassam Nabulsi. He is suing the sheik for millions of dollars he claimed he was owed for various business deals.

Nabulsi submitted video tapes, which the sheik had allegedly entrusted to him along with financial records and investment documents, to a U.S. federal court in Houston. He also charged Issa and other members of the Emirates ruling family with false imprisonment and with torturing him in an attempt to get the tapes back.

Although members of the ruling Al Nahyan family hold the presidency and key positions in the government, Issa a half brother of the Emirates' president and a brother of the crown price has no official role.

Few details have emerged from the private deliberations of the ruling family member over Issa's case the latest test for the country's long-enshrined two-tier system of justice.

The dilemma for the officials is whether to break tradition and order a courtroom trial for a member of the ruling elite as demanded by international rights groups, or whether to remain loyal to tribal codes and render any possible punishment away from the public eye.

Nabulsi's U.S.-based lawyers have dismissed the official investigation. They are convinced the sheik's case will never get to court and doubt Issa will ever be punished.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090707/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_emirates_torture_tapes;_ylt=ArLAlWUGLtZkGltC2Mg6hLMLewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTJ2Z2FpOGFuBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNzA3L21sX2VtaXJhdGVzX3RvcnR1cmVfdGFwZXMEcG9zAzUEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDdWFlcHJvc2VjdXRv

lol i know the son of the guy who is suing the sheik, no kiding..i live in houston



"The more man forgets himself- by giving himself to a cause to serve or person to love-the more human he is & the more he actualizes himself.

Proof of the system of justice which exists in the UAE. No one will be pardoned, sheikh, emperor, whoever. Everyone is equal under the law.

ahmed it's a bit early to make such a statement m8, just wait until they reach a verdict.

the fact that they investigate means fvckall...

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Quoting a Turkish forumer:
"It's a well known fact that most of the boys or girls living in south-eastern Turkey are losing their virginities to horses or dogs of their villages, so I don't think this will suprise any Turk in this forum; we are used to these kinda news..."

"ahmed it's a bit early to make such a statement m8, just wait until they reach a verdict.

the fact that they investigate means fvckall..."

Well it is a fact that a Kuwaiti emir who smuggled drugs into the country was given (and the state carried out) a death sentence. Then there was another sheikh in Abu Dhabi who tried to harass a few girls a few years ago who was jailed. There is something in the UAE called an "expat legend" which is an equivalent to an "urban legend". Untouchable people in the UAE is one of them. The fact is that sheikhs, emiratis, expats whoever they are here, are all equal under the law and jailed.