UK Hay festival a woman curator claims sexual assault against UAE minister Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, calling the incident a “disgusting violation”.
Caroline Michel president of the festival said that as long as Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan is the country’s Minister for Tolerance, they would refrain from hosting the festival in Abu Dhabi.
Their activist, Caitlin McNamara claimed that Sheikh Nahyan had sexually assaulted with her earlier this year and was taking legal action. Sheikh Nahyan 69 years old, denied the allegations.
McNamara 32 years old told The Sunday Times in London that the attack she was alleging took place on February 14, on a residential building on a privately owned island in a remote area. The Hay Literary Festival which was held in Abu Dhabi for the first time this year was to be inaugurated 11 days after the event. McNamara thought she had been summoned to speak at the festival.
McNamara said she reported the matter to her employer and embassy officials shortly after the incident. And after the coronavirus lockdown was lifted in Britain, he went to the police station in the Kent area and reported the incident.
A statement from Caroline Michel, chair of Hay Festival. pic.twitter.com/2WhMH8xggf
— Hay Festival (@hayfestival) October 18, 2020
According to the Sunday Times, McNamara is waiting to see if the Crown Prosecution Service will take up the case. She said he had decided to make the incident public by relinquishing his right to anonymity because, according to him, “I felt I had nothing to lose.”
“I wanted to do it because I want to know what powerful people like him can do. They think they can do it and get through, “She said in an interview with a newspaper.
” It’s clear from the way her residence is arranged that I’m not the first woman, and I’m not the last woman. That incident had a huge emotional and physical effect on me. But for him, it may be just a whim. “
The Sunday Times reports that Sheikh Nahyan did not respond to a request for comment. However, a statement from the lawyers for Schilling, a London-based defamation law firm, said: “Our client is shocked and shocked by this allegation. The incident is being reported eight months after it was reported and is being reported through a national newspaper. The details of this incident are being denied.
“What happened in Abu Dhabi last February with our colleague and friend Caitlin McNamara is a heinous breach of trust in her and her position and a heinous act of torture,” Caroline Michelle, president of the Hay Festival, said in a statement on Twitter.
“Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan has given the thumbs up to his role as Minister and has undermined the government’s efforts to organize the Hay Festival to further promote freedom of speech and women’s empowerment in the country.”
