The family of a British father detained in the United Arab Emirates say they still do not know what allegations he is facing, seven months after learning of his arrest through Snapchat.
Ryan Pepper, 27, was taken into custody at Dubai Airport on November 3, 2025, and has since been subjected to assault, threats and psychological abuse inside a UAE detention facility, his relatives have claimed.
Mr Pepper, a father of two from Ashford, Kent, has described his alleged treatment in brief phone calls and letters he managed to smuggle out, leaving his family increasingly fearful for his safety.
According to his family, the abuse has included four of his teeth being removed with pliers, prolonged sleep deprivation lasting almost 100 days, and threats that his hands would be broken unless he signed documents written in Arabic.
Mr Pepper is understood not to have been formally charged and reportedly remains unaware of the offences he is accused of. His family say the uncertainty has left them feeling “constantly sick” and has had a devastating impact on his mental health while he remains in custody.
He was being held with 14 other detainees, including eight British nationals, at Sharjah detention centre near Dubai, where relatives claim the group endured daily violence and were denied access to a fair legal process.
“He has been blindfolded, gagged, stripped naked, beaten, sexually assaulted and psychologically tortured,” his sister, Chloe Pepper, told the Daily Mail.
“He and the other men were held in rooms they call ‘Zamzam rooms’. They are small three-by-five rooms allegedly used for punishment and torture. They say there are four of these. They turn the CCTV off when they do it,” she said.
Ryan Pepper (pictured) has been assaulted, threatened and psychologically abused in a United Arab Emirates (UAE) detention facility after being seized at Dubai Airport on November 3, 2025, according to his family
Mr Pepper is pictured at his wedding with his sister Chloe Pepper, who has been fighting to free her brother
The 24-year-old continued: ‘They say they were spending months without daylight, under constant bright yellow humming lights that made sleep nearly impossible. They suffered around 92 days of near-total sleep deprivation.’
As Mr Pepper’s family grapple with his ordeal, they say they have been kept in the dark about his movements and have been drip-fed information.
This includes previous uncertainty over his whereabouts, after he went ‘missing’ on numerous occasions, including this week.
It is a similar situation faced by former glamour model Katie Price after she discovered her husband Lee Andrews was detained in Dubai’s Al Awir Central Prison, having gone ‘missing’ for two weeks. He has since been released.
Ms Pepper received a panicked call from her brother on June 9, who told her the group was being moved to an undisclosed location.
For the following week, neither his family nor the authorities were informed about his whereabouts, or whether he was still alive.
She said: ‘I got a call on Tuesday that he needed to sign some paperwork, releasing his belongings. There were rumours that everyone was being moved.
‘He then rang me again at around 1pm and said “If you don’t hear from me, please contact the embassy in the morning and find out where I’ve gone”.’
Mr Pepper’s family only learned of his arrest on November 3, 2025, through his geo-location on Snapchat
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Ms Pepper, 24, said the family have been kept in the dark about his movements and have been drip-fed information
‘I didn’t hear from him again and the embassy told me they would have an update a week later,’ Ms Pepper added.
The family were told by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office on Tuesday that the father was being held in Sharjah Central Prison, yet the charges against him remain unknown and the family are yet to hear his voice.
‘The embassy should know more than they do,’ Ms Pepper added. ‘They say the UAE authorities are holding back the information from both them and the Foreign Office.’
It is a battle she has largely taken on herself, with the help of Detained in Dubai, as other family members ‘could not cope with it’, including their mother Julie.
Ms Pepper added: ‘I feel like I’ve been left alone in the dark. I feel sick 24/7 and have lost a lot of weight because of the stress of it all.’
The uncertainty is something Mr Pepper’s family say they have been forced to endure from the beginning, after they only learned of his arrest through his geo-location on Snapchat.
The family then had no contact with their brother and son, who moved to Dubai in May 2025 to work as a sales officer, for six months.
‘He had landed back from New York after visiting a friend. The friend called me and asked if I knew if Ryan was okay and told me to look on Snapchat,’ Ms Pepper said.
‘I did and saw he was sat in a police station in Dubai. I tried to call him but he didn’t pick up. And then his location vanished after 20 minutes.
‘I got the very first phone call from him in May, six months after he had been arrested. He didn’t sound like my brother, as he told me about the torture. I cried my eyes out.
‘I only knew he was arrested after I hustled the embassy for two weeks. I thought he was dead for a good week.’
Meanwhile in a voice note recorded by Ms Pepper during a phone call from prison, Mr Pepper revealed he and other Brits were threatened with extreme violence and forced to sign documents in Arabic.
In the recording, Mr Pepper, who has two sons under three years old, is 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.
Mr Pepper is the father of two sons aged under three years old, and is pictured with his child and sister
‘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.’
The family have been left calling for help from the UK Government, as they seek clarity on his future.
‘I just want someone to help me,’ Ms Pepper said.
‘If he has done something wrong, he deserves judicial process, no-one should be tortured. He was meant to come back in the new year’
A spokesperson for the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office told the Daily Mail: ‘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.’
