All language subtitles for Locked Up Abroad_S01E05_Kuwait

But I'll do it once and just shows you
that the smallest thing can change

everything I Couldn't have taken the
torture that was the calm. I couldn't

done it And they said Scott we're gonna
hang you And that was it all of a

sudden it became very very real I was
getting out of here

I was 19 years old and I was living with
my father.

My father initially left us and moved
out to Kuwait with a good job.

My parents' marriage was already
disintegrating, really. So I was offered

to go to boarding school in Scotland or
a motorcycle and stay with my dad.

So I chose the motorcycle and stayed
with my dad.

My father was a libertarian.

Parenting wasn't his forte.

I was allowed to do what I wanted
whenever I wanted, really. It was a

exciting childhood.

Wait, it's not a very pretty place. It's
just the... I describe it as being

an ugly place.

Growing up there, being English, A lot
of us tended to think we were a little

bit immune to the laws of the land.

We always thought we could get out of
what we got into.

Kuwait was, in theory, a dry country.

Muslims were not allowed to drink.

Not that they didn't, but they're not
allowed to in public.

It attempted to present itself as a
strict conservative society.

I have to say, to this day, I've never
lived in a country that has such a great

social scene.

party scene as Kuwait had at that time.

You get people that you feel comfortable
around and you recognize, want to be

part of your social scene for all that
it represents.

You had Americans, English, Canadians,
all that stuff.

My partner in crime flicked it.

Tall, handsome, Hawaiian shirt.

Just a happy -go -lucky individual at
that time. Very similar to me.

Jenny was a pretty young woman. She had
a lot to put up with in coping with us a

lot.

Some great parties happened at Jenny's
house, yeah, I'd say that.

Lisa was the love of my life.

A beautiful girl who I got together
with.

She's English, but she looks Lebanese or
Cypriot.

Always been my preference.

My closest friends, and we were all part
of a very tight group of people who

understood each other.

I think we were a little bit too far out
for even the liberal Arabs.

Friends of mine, I met a Saudi guy
called Ali.

Ali was to become a very good friend of
mine.

And he was the person who I first found
out could actually get hashish on a

regular basis.

I was aware that drugs were not allowed.

Alcohol was not allowed.

Drugs was definitely not allowed, yes.

But I hadn't looked into it. I wasn't
going to get caught. I wasn't doing

anything wrong.

My philosophy in life was I lived for
the moment. I was totally free and

enjoying every second of my life.

Talal appeared out of nowhere, out of
nowhere.

None of us knew him that well.

Not a figment of your imagination, but
he'd been introduced by somebody who was

a good friend of mine.

I'm at a friend's house. I'm having a
smoke with him. He introduces me to a

called Talal.

He's a creepy sort of bloke, a lechie.

We were just there at the women.

make everybody feel generally
uncomfortable.

We were having too much fun to put up
with people we didn't like, and Talal

definitely one of those people that he
wasn't liked.

He was an outsider who I should never,
ever, ever have entertained.

He said to me, Scott, do you know where
to get some hash?

He wanted one case, which was
approximately 250 grams.

It was a significant amount.

It was probably the equivalent of
something like a thousand pounds.

Two thousand dollars, something like
that.

I told him, I don't want to do this.

He said, I'll bug me and bug me and bug
me.

And called me, Scott, can you do this?
Scott, can you do that?

Even my dad, a few days before
everything went wrong, would say, who's

on the phone? What's he calling about?

He was bugging me, bugging me, bugging
me. I decided, OK, I'll do it and try

make some money.

Lisa, my girlfriend at the time, was
living in Cyprus.

But she intended to come and see me at
Christmas time.

The extra money I had from this
particular deal was probably going to

towards that goal.

I foolishly said yes.

It was as simple as that.

Do you know what I mean? That's all. I
thought I'd do it once.

I went to Jenny to meet Ali. He brought
along with him what I'd ordered, which

was one case, 250, 300 grams of hashish.

I gave Ali the money that I'd received
from Talal in payment for the hash that

he was now giving me. The largest lump
I'd ever seen, yeah.

Yeah.

Click, click. No, it didn't click.

I asked my dear friend Jenny if I could
hide it in her underwear drawer.

She was anxious and I said, don't worry,
if anything goes wrong, I promise you I

will own up to it.

I wanted the evening to be further on. I
wanted her over and done with. I was

anxious. You know, I realised what I was
doing, maybe, and I wanted to be back.

Met.

What?

Given the hashish to live and back at
the party, ready to carry on partying.

Going on a drug deal when you've had a
smoke is not a good place to be.

No, not at all.

I took Slick Nick with me and I told him
that I wanted to check some noise out

on my brakes.

I told him that I was taking him on a
drug deal.

I guess I took Nick there, you know, so
I had some, I was scared,

you know, undoubtedly.

Just went over and done quickly.

I thought I'd park up next to him.

Do like I've done with Ali.

Thank you. Bye.

But what actually happened was we parked
outside the nearby American school.

We arrived there.

Talal's car was there.

He came over to talk to us.

By this time, yes, I was nervous. By
this time, it was all seeming serious.

By this time, I was anxious.

I showed him this rather pancake -like
looking thing that I'd brought along.

I asked him, I said, can I have a little
bit?

He explained that it didn't seem very
big.

I was no drug dealer, you know. I had no
experience of the sort of thing.

I said, well, you know how it is.

And he said, okay, let me in your car.

So he...

Got in the back of my car.

And we were talking to him in the back
of the car. He was asking if he'd come

the party, this, that and the other.

Nick was having a look around and, you
know, probably a bit pissed off about

fact that I'd included him in this.

And during that process, Nick had
spotted somebody.

Looked in the mirror and seen a guy
walking back past.

behind the back of the car and seen the
guy staring at us.

And Nick had thought that was odd
because he wasn't just a look. He'd gone

and he'd walked by. So it was one of
those things that raised the tension.

He gave me a little bit.

We told Talal that he couldn't come with
us.

So Talal got out of the car.

He asked for a cigarette.

We gave it to him.

He smoked it, like a joint.

I said, why are you smoking it like
that?

And then he proceeded to flip the
cigarette over the top of the car.

Everything seemed...

so eerie, that all of a sudden they
think, let's go.

And we did.

We left the scene, turned left, turned
right, boom, boom, boom, and arrived

at the party.

When we closed the door, it was like
everything was locked out and we were

inside.

Everything would be fine.

I was really glad that it was over.

To me, it was over.

Let's drink.

Let's party.

I wasn't thinking about another deal. I
didn't ever want to see Talal again as

long as I lived.

I was a relieved, relieved individual by
that.

I was back with my friends, my closest
friends.

And I was back in my comfort zone.

Drinks had been poured.

A bit of smoking had taken place.

And we hear a knock on the door.

Who is it?

Talal.

Oh, ice ran through me, I tell you.

Why was Talal at my door, at this door?

Why was he here?

He didn't know where I was supposed to
be. Why he followed me here? Why was

Talal at my door?

Something was wrong. Something was very
wrong.

And I knew it right away.

I didn't know what to do. I was like a
rabbit in the headlights.

I started walking towards the door. Hang
on, hang on a minute.

Boom.

That moment changed my life forever.

The door came flying open. They came
through with guns drawn, eight of them.

Those guns were definitely pointed at
me.

That moment changed my life forever. It
was to change my whole life forever, not

just for the time I went to jail. It
changed me.

For a person who had a very optimistic,
casual, easygoing look at life, I was to

be hit with a sledgehammer. It was
really hard for a man of my age. You

wasn't a bad person.

I wasn't selling drugs.

I wasn't... I was just, come on, let's
have some fun. That's all I was. Nothing

else.

And that was it.

Huge bloke grabbed me.

with another bloke, and frog -marked me
straight out of the front room, straight

into the bedroom, and said to me, Scott,
where did you get the hashish?

I was a bit wrecked. I said, well,

I've never actually met the guy.

What I actually do is I call him, and
we've got a prearranged place in the

desert, and I drive out there, and I
leave the money there, and he comes

on in the evening and says, Scott, where
did you get the hashish?

I said, well, I'm trying to tell you.

And then he hit me.

And I fell on the bed.

They brought Ali into the room and they
said, this man has the marked money.

Why does Ali have the marked money?

I was scared.

To his credit, Ali thought and didn't
make me say it.

He said I gave it to him.

I told him that she... So I thank God
that I had Ali with me because

I couldn't have taken the torture that
was to come. I couldn't have done it. I

would have spoken and I know it. And I
was so relieved, in a way, that Ali was

busted with me.

They moved me out of the bedroom.

And they moved me out with everybody
else.

They'd all been sat down on the floor.

The police had also discovered the
brewery room. The cops were probably

glad they waited because they discovered
alcohol as well.

They went everywhere.

They were having the time of their
lives.

They took the sombreros off the wall
that Jenny had and started dancing

You've got the CID with his gun in his
hand, and they're all really happy.

Everything drops on a dime, doesn't it?
Your life can change at the drop of a

hat, just like that, at any time, be it
cancer, be it an event like this, just

like that.

And it's how you deal with it.

Can you come out the other side?

Will it break you?

And they took us outside.

They drove us, so it took about 45
minutes to get from the house.

And I said to him, I said, where are you
taking me?

And they said, Scott, we're going to
hang you.

This had real relevance for me because a
good friend of mine had been found

hanging three or four years previously
in very suspicious circumstances.

We never really understood quite what
had happened.

And I was really nervous then.

It was one of the scariest moments of my
life, without a doubt.

You know, it would scare anybody,
wouldn't it?

I was taken up into the top part of the
building and handcuffed in the captain's

office.

Typical bleak, bland room with, you
know, no decoration.

picture of the ruler of the country
behind the desk, which is obligatory.

Not a place you want to be, really.

It was getting really serious. Scott,
you're facing 25 years.

And I believed them when they said 25
years. It was drugs, it was QA. You've

the cops there telling you this. They
should know it. They know the judicial

system.

Because when you're that age, that
amount of time is just the most daunting

thing.

I said, Scott, get ready, we're going to
your house.

Didn't even cross my mind that we were
going to my house. Why the f*** do we

have to go to my house?

And that meant meeting my dad.

And we drove up to my house.

And I'll never forget that.

And there I was with four huge men with
guns around me.

I asked if I could stay in the car.

They wouldn't let me.

My dad came out from the kitchen and
he'd been drying dishes.

They opened the door, they pushed me
straight past him and took me into my

bedroom, which was a bar, which they
quite liked.

All I heard from the next room was my
father going, oh my God, oh my God.

They confiscated loads of stuff.

And then we went outside.

And one of the only times in my life my
father hugged me.

He said, Scott, I'm so sorry.

I looked at him and said, Dad, no, I'm
the one who's sorry, Dad.

I'm the one who's sorry.

And I got in the car as they were
driving me away.

Seeing my dad, it was a shame I felt
weird.

I wasn't going off to university or
anything, was I?

Here I was, with four armed men at my
door.

taking them into my dad's house so they
could search the town.

Everything was overwhelming.

I was facing 25 years of jail in my head
at this time. I mean, I'd been told

they were going to hang me.

And I look back and I think, how could
you have been so stupid? But I was, and

paid a heavy price.

I was moved to the cells downstairs in
the bowels of the jail.

And I was kept down there while they
tortured Ali.

They want to find the source, like every
police department.

Where's it coming from? Who's the main
dealer? Who's the wholesaler?

Get on the phone, Ali.

Set up the guy you get it from.

And do it now.

Otherwise, we'll do more of this.

I was downstairs when they did it.

Everybody in the jail heard it. It was
horrific.

The screams, they tortured them.

I had tears in my eyes. I just couldn't
believe it. I was so ashamed that I had

caused all of this.

The fact that Ali had been caught with
me.

I mean, obviously there wasn't much need
to torture me.

But they did mentally.

They take you into a room and they lie
you down.

And they kneel on your chest.

And they lift your legs up.

And then they have a selection of bamboo
canes in the corner.

Called it back like that. And then all
started laughing.

It scares the living.

It really does.

When you've got four men of another
nationality, big men, leaning on you and

kneeling on you and lifting your legs
and then laughing at you, you're sad.

Unnecessary. But you get sick, pathetic
human beings who get some sort of

gratification out of doing that to other
human beings. I'm not one of them.

One of the strange things that happened
during the time in the police station

was Talal walked in like he owned it a
couple of days after I'd arrived there.

He'd come to explain his actions and
that he wasn't a snitch and that he had

been caught smoking.

He wanted my understanding of what he'd
done.

They told me that when I went to his
house, that there had been police

in the next room.

When he'd asked me for the cigarette,
and he'd smoked it like a joint, thrown

over the back of the car, that was the
signal for them to arrest us.

But they didn't. They wanted to come to
the house.

And this man that we'd seen there was
actually one of the cops that proceeded

kick the door down 20 minutes later.

Well, he said he'd been tortured for
days and he'd been made to set me up.

I mean, I'm on my own at this stage, you
know, and I don't know what to believe.

My instinct tells me he's lying through
his teeth. He's walking fine.

My God, if they'd beaten him like Ali,
he wouldn't be able to walk for a week.

You know, nothing made any sense.

In the end, he was a snitch through and
through. Without a doubt, he was a

coward and a snitch.

You know, worthless.

I felt like I'd been stitched up, that's
for sure.

Who wouldn't?

They ordered us all outside.

They'd made a display.

stand like an exhibition stand of all of
the gear that they'd and they made us

all stand line up behind it for our
family photo so that they could um

it throughout the country there's no
getting out of it i

was gonna go down

My main objective was getting my friends
out.

I was royally stiff. There was nothing I
could do.

I confessed to everything.

I told them that everything in the house
was mine.

Everyone else denied everything.

And they decided that they would let
everybody out, apart from me and Ali.

I was taken on the loneliest bus ride of
my life.

It was very quiet on that bus ride to
the central jail.

I knew my friends were out.

I had Ali, thank God.

I was on my own.

It's a very lonely place to be.

I was terrified. I was walking into a
really... This was Kuwait's central

We were taken in and there was this
captain who was probably a couple of

older than me sitting behind the desk.

They removed all of our personal
effects. I had my sort of engagement

Lisa that... We called it our engagement
ring anyway. And all of my personal

belongings.

taken away in my clothes, and we were
issued with prison guards.

Five minutes after that, I went through
probably, I mean, the scariest moment of

my life, and that was being taken into
the jail block.

This was where the murderers and the
rapists and the terrorists and everybody

was kept, and I was heading for the big
time.

That's a very difficult moment.

They open the block of the block and you
get this big block with all these

sounds.

Fear. Fear.

Fear for how much you're going to have
to deal with and how different your life

now is going to be.

Turks, to Lebanese, to Iraqi, to
Iranian, a whole bunch of people.

I mean, a lot of Iraqis, because they'd
been smuggling guns or alcohol across

from Iraq, which wasn't a dry country.

My time was spent almost exclusively in
my cell.

If anyone was to say to me, what's the
difficult thing about doing time, I'm

talking about Kuwait specific here, I
would say the heat.

The unbelievable heat is 100 % humidity,
128

degrees centigrade.

In our cell, we were given a little
desktop fan, and that was our

whole cooling system.

You'd look up and wait for the fan to
come in your direction and close your

for a couple of seconds.

And the time will go away, and you wait
until you count, until you count, and it

will come back when it will go away.

I didn't get sentenced actually in
court.

Then I was just in my cell.

about six months after I'd been in jail,
and the cop just comes up to the door

of my cell.

Mr. Abiyad, Mr. White.

Mr. Abiyad, Kamsatana White.

Five years, Mr. White.

So I was just told in my block as he
walked by.

You know, it wasn't 25 years, I'll give
you that, but even five years seems like

a very, very long time.

20 years old, it's a quarter of your
life.

I was going to have to serve.

Not months, not days, years.

It's a really difficult concept.

Everything was ruined. I had lost
everything.

I'd lost my job. I had to leave Kuwait
when I got out. I had no career. I had

education. I had nothing. I had one, one
thing, and that was Lisa.

I mean, I've never been as close to any
human being in my life as I was to her

at that time in my life.

And she kept me going. She kept my dream
about getting out because I found

sanctuary in her.

After six months, though, in jail, she
flew out to Kuwait to visit me

occasionally.

Seeing her for the first time was a...

It was a strange experience.

I felt so guilty for what I'd done.

I was so ashamed.

It's very frustrating to have a very
beautiful woman sitting up with you.

Yes, I just find that very difficult.

Seeing a woman you love that you had a
relationship with and that you fancy

beyond anything else, you know, sitting
opposite you and not being able to touch

it, is really difficult.

It's really difficult.

I never gave up hope.

My hope was that Lisa would wait for me
and that I would get out of jail and

meet her at the airport and our lives
would start all over again and we'd be

able to start off.

where we'd left off.

And that, you know, the one thing that I
had hoped and thought about that kept

me going through the first year of my
sentence.

One and a half years into my sentence, I
found out she wasn't waiting for me.

And I guess that, I mean, of all the
days and all of my life, that was

the hardest.

day of my life was to lose the only
thing I had left.

I lost the only thing I had.

And it led me to the most intensely
painful period of my life.

I went back to my cell after I found
out.

I wanted to check myself into solitary.

I was probably the lowest I've ever been
in my life.

I mean, I never really thought about
suicide and things a lot, but I probably

did think about it a little bit then.

I was really down and out.

I got up and I went to the toilet in the
cell.

And I cried a river.

And I couldn't stop myself.

I had hysteria.

I let Lisa go.

I let everything go in my life.

I didn't care about anything anymore,
and I felt such a freedom.

I felt hope that I was going to survive
this, that I wasn't going to be broken,

and that I could feel okay and I could
be happy.

When I had the hysteria, I had a mental
change.

You get a clarity of mind.

I went to the hole, it was called the
hole, to study. And I started studying

Islam and I just read some of the surahs
and the Quran and I listened to some of

the hadith, what the Prophet Muhammad
taught.

He helped me deal with my situation.

by understanding the bigger concepts of
life, rather than just Scott White was

lying in this cell doing five years.

It was like nature taking care of me.

To come through and out the other side
of that, and to come out smiling, I was

given help. I felt I didn't just want to
change, I did change.

And I was born again, in a way, and I
became a survivor.

The tension between Iraq and Kuwait is
at its highest for several weeks after

talks on defusing an explosive crisis in
the Persian Gulf. We had started to

hear things.

Iraq was accusing Kuwait of stealing its
oil and drilling underneath the

borders. We were definitely aware that
Saddam was stomping his feet. We weren't

convinced, however, that he was as
serious as he was.

If he does come...

What's it going to mean for me was a
very real subject in my mind. I mean, I

used to think, maybe it'll be worse, you
know, if Saddam comes and the Iraqis

take control of this jail.

Definitely the tension was building.

I actually went to bed and I listened to
the news report that had said that they

were at the border and there were no
unusual troop movements.

That's how I went to bed on the night of
the 1st of August.

When I woke up on the 2nd of August, I
saw all my friends, you know, Ali and

everybody, you know, listening to
something. I said, what's up?

And they said, we think you've come.

At precisely 2 o 'clock this morning,
100 ,000 Iraqi troops have crossed the

border.

Bing. Gee whiz.

And they've woken up to the path of my
life.

The road that they were coming down was
less than half a mile from the jail, the

main invasion route.

Any minute now, that door could burst
open and it could be Iraqi troops coming

through the door.

We're looking out with our mirrors
trying to see, you know.

Who is it? Kuwaiti -Iraqi, Kuwaiti
-Iraqi.

The Kuwaitis were panicking.

The tension in the jail began to rise
and began to rise. We wanted answers.

What were they going to do? They'd lost
their country. Why were they keeping us

in jail? Why didn't they let us go?

Surely they should let us go. They
weren't going to let us stay here and be

taken by the Iraqis. Why do that?

What have we done to deserve that?

Open the doors and let us go. Your
country's under attack.

in the building.

There were three of us up there running
forward to kick the door. One, two. We

couldn't even make it, like, move.

We were on our ankles after two hits.
Our ankles were on our own.

The guy downstairs was a huge Syrian. He
had legs like tree trunks.

And he, uh, literally kicked the door on
himself with his leg on his own. He

kicked straight through and then he used
the door from Cell 3 to let the rest of

us in.

Riot started in our block.

We got out before anybody else in the
block.

So we were in charge of the inside of
the jail.

All the blocks were being let out. The
file room was on fire. And smoke coming

out down the hallway.

I mean, there was anarchy.

I remember standing outside our block
and I just heard...

Young men, young men, the police have
gone.

And so that's how we knew that it was
safe now to leave.

And that was it.

That was it. That was when all of a
sudden it became very, very real. I was

getting out of here.

And I was going to do it right this
second.

I didn't go back to my cell. I didn't
want to do anything. I wanted to run.

And just as I was walking down the
hallway towards the front of the jail,

somebody came up to me and said, Scott,
Scott, you've got to help out. He's a

little Chinese murderer, built like Mr.
T, built like a brick town.

I said, Scott, can you sort him out? Can
you help him?

I liked him very much, and I said, of
course, no problem. I'll tell you,

I knew Kuwait like the back of my hand.

So we head up to the front of the jail,
and there's a hole in the front of the

jail. I was just so excited.

I was leaving now.

I got through the hole at the front of
the jail with my Chinese murderer beside

me and Ali and headed out to basically
open desert and sunlight.

Why'd they run away from the jail?

Are they going to shoot us? What's going
to happen?

I was heading to that road over there.
That's where we're going. Now, quick.

Hey, there's a guy in a wheelchair.

Oh, he's getting free too. And
somebody's pushing him. I'm glad I'm not

him. I'm running as fast as I can.

Probably within ten minutes of the
gentleman saying, hundreds of prisoners

running across the desert, going in all
directions.

I didn't know what to skip, jump, laugh,
cry. It was fantastic.

You know, it was just fantastic.

It was such a strange feeling.

I mean, you can hear aircraft and you
can hear artillery from miles away.

And so you can hear all of this going
on, as well as the stuff that was going

in the jail. It wasn't only the guns
from the jail that we heard. It was the

guns from the invasion.

It's mainly sounds when you're in a war
zone. It's mainly sounds, unless you're

extremely close.

We'd crossed over the main invasion
route, which was the main road from

Kuwait City.

And we decided that it was time to split
up.

Saying goodbye to Ali was a very
difficult moment, you know, but we'd

through so much together. I owed him so
much and I felt so bad for what I'd done

to him in my stupidity. And he'd never
once blamed me or never once said a

negative word against me.

So saying goodbye to Ali was a moving
experience, but at the same time it was

something that was in the background.

First thing, let's get out of here,
let's get to sanctuary, let's get to

I was out.

But I had this permanent fear that the
invasion would end and that I would have

to walk myself back.

So I decided that the best thing I could
do was to start hitchhiking, because

that's how I used to get around all the
time before I had my car license.

A Sudanese family pulled over in an old
Toyota Crown or something like that.

I sat in the back, and they had this
little black kid in the back, and I put

on my lap.

That's when I felt free for the first
time.

I was going along, and I was going
along. About a mile later, we come up to

Iraqi police check.

And that's when my heart, my
heartbeat...

We look like convicts. Would they care?

And I just stroked this kid's hair with
my two fingers and prayed.

I mean, it was only a couple of weeks
later they made all the people report to

hotels become human hostages and the
human shield, you know, so I could be

as a pawn as loads of other people were
done.

That was the scariest. That was more
scary than going to jail.

It was a very tense, tense situation.

They looked in the window and they
looked in the window.

Come on, come on.

And that was it.

You can go.

I said, what?

He said, you can go.

I couldn't give two monkeys that there
was a Chinese murderer, a strange

-looking white guy in the back of this
car with two of these people, and I

it looked normal to them.

This was an adventure that was going to
end in something good for me, not in

something bad for me.

Well, we were all... The guy downstairs
had big legs. He kicked through the

downstairs door, and they all broke the
doors open with part of the lock of

another door.

This is a prayer that I kept when I was
locked up.

God, don't let me feel arrogant when I
succeed, and don't let me feel hopeless

when I fail, but remind me always that
failing precedes success.

Thank you.

God teaches me that forgiving is the
highest level of strength and taking

revenge is the first sign of weakness.

I don't know why I find it difficult.

Probably because it just takes me back a
bit much.

I believe I'm wiser from my experience
and the way I looked at it and the way I

learned from it and through the people
that I met.

Happier now, wiser, yes.

I wish I hadn't gone through it. I wish
I hadn't lost Lisa. I wish I hadn't felt

all those terrible things that I felt
and all the loneliness I had to go

and the fear.

But, you know, take that against the
actual getting out of jail because

Hussein invades Kuwait. Yeah, there's a
different sort of trade -off. I got

something back.

So whatever happened to that girl, Lisa?

I'm now married to her and I have two
beautiful children, Megan and Zach.

We live in Surrey.

Her life's good.

So you got the girl?

Yeah, yeah, I thought that, but I got
her, yeah.