DUBAI: A Dubai school has said that one of its teaching staff has been suspended following his arrest in the US for attempting to solicit sex with a seven-year-old.
William Ball, who works at the Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai, was arrested and charged in Tampa, Florida on Friday, with soliciting a minor for sex and child pornography.
The school said in a press statement that teachers, staff and stakeholders had been notified of Ball’s suspension.
“William Ball has been suspended with immediate effect pending confirmation and the outcome of the judicial process,” the statement to Arab News read, adding: “The school informed parents and staff as well as the relevant stakeholders.”
News broke of Ball’s arrest early Monday morning. Local reports suggested that he is originally from Mississippi and is a music teacher at the school. It has also been suggested that prior to his employment in Dubai, he was working at the Qatar Academy in Doha.
During a bond hearing in a court in Tampa the prosecutor explained that Ball was using the Internet and a mobile phone to set up and meet a seven-year-old, according to US cable news channel ABC.
The court heard that Ball paid $5,000 for a plane ticket and traveled to meet the child.
On his arrest, he was found to have items for a child, condoms and lubricant, the court heard.
Other evidence gathered includes extensive internet conversations, which is being handled by the Department of Homeland Security.
The school statement claimed that Ball was recruited through a “reputable agency” and that it carried out “stringent background checks.”
The school added that no concerns had been raised about Ball or any other member of staff.
The statement went on to add that immediate action had been taken and that ensuring the protection and wellbeing of its students, which it said was their “top priority.”
Dubai school suspends teacher after arrest amid child sex allegations
Dubai school suspends teacher after arrest amid child sex allegations
Palestinian NGO condemns Israeli act of ‘revenge’ after prisoner abuse video
- A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military prison
RAMALLAH: A Palestinian NGO has denounced what it called an Israeli act of revenge after a video showed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the abuse of detainees in a military prison.
Just days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Ben Gvir held a tour of Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Channel 7 reported.
In footage filmed on Friday and broadcast by the channel, around 20 police officers are seen storming a hallway leading to prison cells, brandishing their weapons and firing stun grenades.
They then pull five detainees from their cells, their hands tied behind their backs, forcing them face-down onto the floor.
The operation took place as a bill proposing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism awaited a final vote in the Israeli parliament.
“This is all part of ongoing displays meant to take revenge on Palestinian detainees,” Abdallah al?Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, told AFP on Saturday.
“Everything Ben Gvir and the far?right government are doing affects not only the Palestinian people and prisoners in detention camps — it also impacts the global legal and human rights system,” he added.
Ben Gvir, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, is considered one of the most hard-line members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
“It is simply a source of pride — arriving at a prison like this, a prison for terrorists, the vilest of the vile, seeing them like this,” Ben Gvir said in the video.
“I want one more thing: to execute them — the death penalty for terrorists,” he added.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday said the remarks were “a new war crime and a blatant challenge to international humanitarian law regarding prisoners.”
International rights groups have repeatedly warned of alleged abuse and mistreatment inflicted in Israeli prisons since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
While the death penalty exists for a small number of crimes in Israel, it has become a de facto abolitionist country, with the Nazi Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann the last person to be executed in 1962.
