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LARadio.com: Shaun Valentine's Nightmare In Dubai
September 12, 2014 at 6:19 AM (PT)
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DON BARRETT's LARADIO.COM has a harrowing story about former LOS ANGELES personality SHAUN VALENTINE, who "has lived a nightmare for the past year. He was jailed in DUBAI and held captive."
VALENTINE explained to BARRETT, "In JUNE of 2011, I saw an ad for an opening in radio in DUBAI. After about one minute of sending my resume and demo, I received a call asking whether I could meet with members of the ARAB MEDIA GROUP in HOLLYWOOD. I had a short interview and was asked to move to DUBAI to start up the world’s first Farsi hit music station. The salary and benefits were very good so I packed up and moved.
"DUBAI looks quite impressive with its tall buildings and everything big and over the top, so it’s easy to fall for its appearance of this modern city. But I learned that underneath it all, it can be a dangerous place."
VALENTINE writes he was fired from the station after 2 years -- and ran into trouble trying to find another job and launching an internet radio station.
The real nightmare began when, "there was a knock at my door. It was DUBAI’s secret police (CID), telling me to 'go with them'. I asked why but was physically nudged and told that they would explain later. I was taken to the police station and told that I was running an illegal radio station. I tried explaining but they would not listen. They brought me back to my house, went in, confiscated all my equipment and took me back to the police station. I’ll never forget the look on my wife’s face while this was going on. My kids were in their rooms. I forced a smile and told her not to worry. But little did I know that my life was about to turn upside down and that I was to be held in DUBAI indefinitely.
"I was kept at the police station until the next morning. All along I was told that I could leave my passport as collateral, go home and resolve this matter in court. At 6a the next day, I was informed that I’m headed to jail. Mind you, all of this for playing music on the Internet. A warm rush went through my body. I tried asking questions but there were no answers."
Read the whole story here.

