Hello. My name is George Charbel. I am an Australian with Egyptian roots. I was borne and raised in Perth WA. In addition to the Australian passport, I carry an Egyptian passport. I am currently in Saudi Arabia. Fate had it that I entered the country on my Egyptian passport. After a couple of year as an employee, I started a small business. The law here in Saudi dose not permit expats to have their own business. A common work-around is to have the business registered in the name of a Saudi citizen. This is how my dilemma started.
So, I found a Saudi partner to have the business registered in his name. Of course, this partner did nothing but collect 40% of the profits, yes the profits. He paid nothing and did nothing except has his name on the legal paperwork.
I was the executive director of the business. Everything was run and controlled by me. I signed paychecks and authorized payments and purchases. I also obtained big loans from the banks.
The business grew and started expanding, but so did my partner’s greed. He asked for a larger share. Naturally, I refused. He wasn’t impressed and decided to exercise some of the powers that the local law gives him. The first thing he did is fire me. When I objected and asked for what’s rightfully mine, he accused me of forgery and stealing. Now that is a huge problem in Saudi. If the allegations stand, I could have my hand chopped off!
Of course, the first thing I did is seek help from the Australian embassy. Well, unfortunately they turned me down. Their reasoning for not being able to help was that I entered Saudi on my Egyptian passport and therefore I am treated as such. My next attempt was to approach the Egyptian embassy. They simply turned me down without offering any explanation!
Now I’m stuck here with my young frightened family not knowing what will happen to us. The banks are chasing me for millions of dollars in debt and the Saudi authorities are planning to put me away for a long time.
I got me a lawyer who is draining my bank account real fast. If I were to fight these unjust allegations I will need plenty of money to pay the lawyer.
My last hope is to appeal to the kindness of people… true Aussies who would not let some barbarian third world people dictate justice in their own way. I am appealing to the kindness of all people out there, who are too proud to give in and accept injustice. I need to pay for my lawyer to defend me. He is the only hope I have right now. Also, if I were to have some hope in avoiding capital punishment, I need to pay the banks a portion of the loans that I authorized. The total amount that I own the banks is US$2,806,345 (two million and eight hundred and six thousand and three hundred and forty five US dollars.) My lawyer told me that I have to pay at least 30% (as an indication of good will) in order to avoid capital punishment. Right now, I need to raise US$841903.50 to pay the banks. My lawyer fees are expected to top the one hundred thousand dollars. This makes the total amound I need to raise nearly one million US dollars! This sounds like an impossible task but I think it's not... not with the help of true Aussies.
I figured that the population of Australia tops 20 million of which there is surely at least 20% true Aussies who simply will not take injustice. If every true Aussie donates US$5 to this just cause then my family and I will have some hope.
Once I raise the money needed to pay the banks, I will book the first flight out of here for my family and send them home… to beautiful Australia.
We came to this desert place thinking that we could earn some good money and then head back home. We thought wrong! There’s no place like home, and all the money in the world is not worth Australian sand.
If you would like to contribute to raising the money needed to rescue a young Australian family, please send your donations to this Australian bank
Bank Name: HSBC
Bank Address: St. George’s Terrace — Perth, WA
SWIFT Code: HKBAAU2S
Account Number: 342 094 326766412
Thank you so much for your kindness
George.
