A BRIT dad-of-two has claimed sick Dubai prison guards threatened to break his hands before they pulled his teeth out – as his sister fears he will die behind bars.
Ryan Pepper, 27, from Kent, has been held in a UAE jail for seven months, where he says he is only allowed out of his cell for 30 to 40 minutes a day.
Ryan Pepper, 27, has been detained in the UAE since November 2025 Credit: AFP
The Brit has two children, aged one and three
His sister Chloe, 24, told The Sun that Ryan’s .
Ryan has not been charged and he doesn’t know what he is accused of as he languishes in Sharjah detention centre, near .
The 14 other prisoners on Ryan’s case include seven other Brits, all in their twenties, Chloe said.
They all claim to have been tortured and sexually assaulted by guards. On one occasion, Ryan was left in hospital.
The dad first revealed the horror in packed with 20 other inmates.
Now, in a voice note secretly recorded by Chloe during a rare phone call with her brother, Ryan revealed how he and other banged-up Brits have been repeatedly threatened with violence.
Ryan can be heard saying: “We signed paperwork, we don’t know what we signed, it was all in Arabic. They threatened to break our hands if we didn’t sign that.
“Everyone on the case signed it and we have no idea what we signed. We have no idea what the thing said – none of us speak Arabic and they wouldn’t give us a translation. They just made us sign it and just put us in the detention centre.”
Ryan, from Ashford in Kent, pictured with his sister ChloeCredit: Supplied
He has been detained in Sharjah since November 2025 Credit: Supplied
Chloe said: “All of them signed out of fear of further violence and serious injury. None of them understood what they were signing.”
Ryan, from Ashford in Kent , claims he and his friends were “kidnapped” by , beaten by “special forces”, denied phone calls and left crammed into overcrowded holding cells.
The detainees were arrested at Al Gharb Police Station in Sharjah before being transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) offices in Maysaloon Park, Sharjah.
Ryan travelled to the UAE on holiday but stayed after reportedly finding work as an estate agent.
Chloe claimed they were “blindfolded, gagged, stripped naked, beaten, sexually assaulted and psychologically tortured over prolonged periods of time”.
The alleged abuse occurred in small tiled rooms of the CID offices, where CCTV was turned off.
Ryan believes guards recorded videos of the violent sexual assaults and sent them around their private and groups.
His sister, Chloe, said Ryan is “terrified” and hardly eats after he was tortured and sexually assaulted behind bars.
She said her brother is afraid to even eat the food in the Sharjah detention centre and often goes hungry, because prisoners believe it is drugged.
He only eats when he is able to buy food from the commissary with that family have managed to transfer.
When Chloe was finally able to hear her brother’s voice, he told her the grim details of his alleged treatment.
Phone calls are limited to “only a few minutes a day, leaving loved ones in the UK terrified and without answers”, Chloe said.
He told her he had spent months without seeing daylight, kept “under constant bright yellow humming lights that made nearly impossible”.
Ryan’s sister said: “There were bright humming lights 24/7. There was no drinking water and it mentally and physically broke them.”
Chloe is shocked that the British Embassy has not been able to offer more help.
She says officials took more than two weeks to even confirm that Ryan was locked up, and now say an could take a year or more.
Embassy officials reported visiting Ryan and witnessing his cracked , with a bandage around his head after his assault.
But the 27-year-old’s family are still left without answers.
Her MP has reportedly demanded a wet ink signature from Ryan to prove his consent before he can help.
The dad-of-two hasn’t seen his children, aged just one and three, for more than six months.
Only recently were they able to hear his voice on a call for the first time in months, which Chloe described as “just amazing”.
She was just glad her nephews remembered their father’s voice after so long.
“Ryan did ring at the perfect time, he got to say hello to his son,” Chloe said.
“He went, ‘Hello, daddy’. And I was like, oh, you remember his voice? It was so heartwarming. It’s hard to even describe that moment.”
Finding out that an Embassy investigation could take so long left Chloe devastated.
She said: “He had a bandage over his head and they saw it first hand. How are they telling me that it’s going to take over a year or not at all?
“It’s crazy. It was so upsetting reading that email. I feel like I’ve hit every brick wall imaginable. I just want him safe”
While Ryan is stuck behind bars with no idea why, his family are terrified.
His sister is fighting for answers, and added: “It’s just heartbreaking to hear he was sexually assaulted multiple times… Why would they do that?”
Chloe said she worries every day for her brother’s safety, adding: “I worry about him dying by the hands of Dubai.”
Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, a campaign group that supports those locked up in the UAE, said there has been a huge spike in cases like Ryan’s.
She told The Sun: “What is particularly alarming is that Ryan’s case is not an isolated incident.
“The number of reports we are receiving from British citizens alleging police brutality, torture and arbitrary detention in the UAE has increased dramatically.
“Ryan called me from prison… we were only able to speak briefly, but I could hear both hope and desperation in his voice after more than seven months of detention without charge.
“He’s a well spoken and polite young English father. It was heartbreaking to speak with him, knowing what he’s been through. No one should be subjected to what Ryan has endured.”
Radha said the government must act to help its citizens suffering abuse in the UAE.
She added: “Ryan’s case deserves urgent attention, accountability and action. His family, and the many others who have suffered similar experiences, deserve answers.”
An FCDO spokesperson told The Sun: “We are supporting a British man who is currently detained in the UAE.
“We are in contact with his family and continue to raise the case directly with the local authorities in the UAE.”
The Sun contacted Dubai’s prosecutor’s office and the UAE’s Foreign Office for comment.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
I'm dedicated to creating high-quality content that informs, inspires, and delights. If you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to get in touch. Happy reading!
