Houston man details alleged torture tapes in lawsuit against sheik

HOUSTON -- From its manmade islands to soaring towers of concrete and steel, Dubai has sprung up from the desert floor like a mirage – a jewel in the crown of the United Arab Emirates.

Among the epic developments under way there is The Palisades.

It’s being built by Sheik Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan as a tribute to his late father, the country’s former president.

“Honestly, after his father passed away, the late president of the UAE who everyone had great fear and respect for, he’s felt he’s free to do whatever he wants,” Houston businessman Bassam Nabulsi said.

Nabulsi said he also has a great fear for the sheik, but he’s long since lost all respect.

And if you believe the allegations he’s leveled in a lawsuit filed in Houston’s federal court, you can understand why.

“What we’re dealing with here is someone who considers themselves above the law. In fact, by custom, the royal family is above the law in the UAE,” attorney Anthony Buzbee said.

AP photo

Dubai

Sheik Issa isn’t just the late president’s son – he’s also the brother of Abu Dhabi’s crown prince.

Nabulsi said he first met the sheik back in 1994 while making travel arrangements to the Medical Center for the royal family.

“In ’95 and ’96, our friendship evolved and got closer, and after that we became very good friends,” Nabulsi said.

“And the sheik was in possession of a large amount of capital and wanted to put that capital to work. So they formed a partnership. They did business literally all over the world, including Texas,” Buzbee said.

But in the course of doing business, the lawsuit alleges the sheik began a long, slow spiral into depravity.  It claims he came to enjoy torturing people he thought had slighted him, and he took pleasure in videotaping the torture sessions.

“The sheik would sometimes, when groups of people were together, he thought it impressed women. He would show the video of a torture session and he would say, ‘Look at what I did. That’s me doing that,’” Buzbee said.

Nabulsi said he was entrusted with three videotapes of the sheik’s torture sessions. His attorney allowed 11 News to see still frames from one of the tapes.

“The video shows an Afghan national who was providing grain to one of the sheik’s ranches. The sheik believed he had been charged for two loads of grain when he only had received one,” Buzbee said.

The video shows a man who appears to be the sheik torturing another man for 45 minutes.

“Stuffing sand in his mouth. Beating him in the buttocks with a plank with nails in it,” Buzbee said.

Buzbee said the video even shows the sheik forcing a cattle prod into the man’s anus.

“In fact, at one point, he takes lighter fluid and douses the man’s genitals and lights them on fire,” Buzbee said of the tape.

“And he showed me the tape in the presence of others, and my immediate reaction was, ‘You’re not a God-fearing person,’” Nabulsi said.

And that’s when the sheik turned on him, Nabulsi claimed.

He said the sheik eventually had him falsely imprisoned on bogus marijuana charges for three months.

“And they said, ‘You have tapes for the sheik. We want them back,’” Nabulsi said.

“They were telling him every day, ‘We killed your wife yesterday. We raped her before we killed her. We’re going to kill your son tomorrow,’” Buzbee said.

But Nabulsi said he didn’t have the tapes.  He said he had them out of the country before he was arrested.

Nabulsi said he was cleared of the marijuana charges and deported.  If not for the tapes in his possession, he suspects he never would have made it out of the country alive.

He said he’s earned tens of millions of dollars for the sheik, and now he’s seeking what he believes is rightfully his in a courtroom halfway around the world.