Until recently Herve Jaubert manufactured and sold leisure submarines in U.A.E., but the French entrepreneur found himself a wanted man overnight. When his business, bankrolled by a state-owned conglomerate, turned out deficits during the economic crisis last year, the Dubai authorities charged him with embezzlement. Threatened with prosecution, Jaubert took to the sea under the cover of the night and fled via India to Florida. In an interview with the Washington Post on Monday, Jaubert protested his innocence and disclosed audio recordings of threats from government investigators during interrogation in Dubai. Investigations and prosecutions of foreigners in Dubai have increased sharply over the recent years. Testimonies reveal a series of arrests for petty crimes and minor legal infringements -- thought trivial during boom time -- usually followed by harsh treatment and threats. Dubai, which once proudly advertised its economic prosperity brought on by foreign investments and labor, is now looking to foreigners as potential scapegoats. Dubai, a quintessential model for a modern and liberal Islamic state, is known for a more lenient policy towards drinking or women's rights than its Arab neighbors. However, arrests and imprisonments of foreigners since the economic crisis have steadily been on the rise. "The National," UAE's English newspaper, reported on the 5th that the number of foreigners jailed for petty offenses was increasing amidst the recession. How many foreigners have been in Dubai is not known. According to data released by several embassies, however, there are thousands of them. "We are certain that the number is rapidly increasing," Human Rights Watch told the Washington Post recently. The problem is that Dubai's judicial system remains opaque and capricious, while due process is often ignored. Arbitrary arrests accompanied by sleep deprivation, starvation, threats, or extended imprisonment without prosecution are still rampant. Two Australians who participated in a large-scale public works project for state-owned real estate developer Nakheel were arrested last January for fraud-related offenses but had to spend six months in prison until they were officially charged, seven weeks of which they spent in solitary confinement. Locals seldom face such treatment even if they are charged with similar offenses. At its economic peak when Dubai openly welcomed foreign investments, foreigners accounted for more than 90 percent of residents and 99 percent of private sector labor. "Dubai is usually a place people flee to, not from," the WaPo reported. "But a severe economic slump has reversed the flow." http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/08/14/2009081400599.html