Scandal for the Emirates in Britain: bribery at Sandhurst Military Academy
The Daily Mail reported that the famous Military Academy expelled seven Emirati students and a number of their supervisors due to a bribery scandal that included providing luxury cars and sums of money.
The identity of the seven Emirati students was not revealed, but sources suggested that they are children of senior officials in the ruling regime in Abu Dhabi.
The newspaper stated that Emirati students were also expelled from the academy due to their luxurious lifestyle during training.
It explained that the graduation ceremony at the Military Academy “hid a very embarrassing chapter in the prestigious history of Sandhurst Academy.”
It noted that the academy leader, Major General Duncan Capps, expelled at least seven students from the UAE due to what is described as “disciplinary incidents”.
The Daily Mail indicated that the problem became severe at one point that the military police investigated allegations of “huge bribes”.
It pointed out that the students gave expensive gifts to the coaches of Sandhurst, which are BMW and Mercedes cars, Rolex watches and trips to elite resorts.
The newspaper said that the oil-rich countries are paying exorbitant amounts for their relations with Sandhurst, adding that the UAE recently built a new “Zayed Building” building at 15 million pounds.
The Daily Mail indicated that the expulsions come at a time when relations with the UAE are tense, as a British court last December ordered the ruler of Dubai to pay a record amount of 554 million pounds to settle a dispute with his ex-wife, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, over the custody of their two children.
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a friend of the royal family who loves horse racing, will have to pay for Princess Haya’s security for the rest of her life after she fled to Britain.
This came in the wake of previous Supreme Court rulings that the sheikh orchestrated the kidnappings of two of his daughters and used military surveillance software to launch a phone hacking operation on British soil.
Earlier, Capps warned: “Regardless of background or position, officers are treated the same way… Kings are treated like everyone else, but some find this hard to accept.”
One Sandhurst graduate was quoted as saying: ‘Someone wanted to be excused from early morning practice, so he went up to the sergeant with a bundle of £10 bills. But the responsible sergeant refused, so the trainee was placed on guard at two o’clock in the morning.”
More recently, there have been difficulties with London’s “cultural days,” according to the Daily Mail.
Another witness in Sandhurst said: “If you’re going to go up to see a play or go to a museum, you’re going to be in a mess with the introduction of alcohol.”
He added that the less impressive foreign students were known as “Floppies” – “lazy potential enemies”.
