The 2014 podcast Serial brought international attention to the murder of Hae Min Lee, scrutinising the evidence — or lack thereof — that led to the conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed.
Lee was aged 18 when she disappeared in January 1999 after leaving her school in Baltimore in the US. Her body was discovered weeks later in a park. Forensic reports showed she had been strangled.
Syed, who was 17 at the time, was arrested and charged with the murder. A year later, he was sentenced to life in prison, convicted of murder, kidnapping, robbery and false imprisonment.
The case went out of the public eye for years, until it was featured in season one of Serial, a podcast hosted by US journalist Sarah Koenig. In 12 episodes, the podcast pores over the case, pointing out several inconsistencies, including that forensic reports showed no signs of Syed’s DNA on Lee’s body. The series raised questions about whether Syed, a young Muslim man, was convicted partly owing to racial prejudice.
The podcast was instrumental in bringing Syed’s wrongful conviction back to the courtroom, and on Monday, his conviction was overturned by a judge owing to the state's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence. The state has been given 30 days to decide whether to seek a new trial or dismiss the case.
Serial, however, is not the only true-crime podcast to have reignited a cold case.
'The Teacher’s Pet'
On August 30, Australian former rugby player and teacher Christopher Dawson was found guilty of murdering his wife, Lynette — 40 years after she mysteriously disappeared.
The pair had met in high school in 1965. They married in 1970 and had two children. Dawson pursued a professional rugby career between 1972 and 1976. He then worked as a physical education teacher in a Sydney school, where he was alleged to have engaged in illicit behaviours with his female students. In 1981, he groomed and began a relationship with a 16-year-old student. Lynette went missing on January 9, 1982. Three days later, Dawson invited the student to move into the family home. They were married in 1984 and divorced almost a decade later.
Lynette’s body was never found. However, investigations ruled that she had most likely been murdered by someone she knew. Dawson claimed that Lynette had left after long-running disputes over credit card spending and that she had joined a religious organisation.
For years, Dawson was not charged as prosecutors cited insufficient evidence. Then, in 2018, The Teacher’s Pet reignited public interest in the case. The podcast by journalist Hedley Thomas highlighted inconsistencies in Dawson’s statement and argued that it was unlikely that Lynette, by all accounts a devoted mother, would leave her children and that she would do so with no suitcase or jewellery.
The series was a hit and was downloaded more than 60 million times. Months after its release, Dawson was formally charged. His trail started in May and ended in August with a conviction.
'Up and Vanished'
The podcast Up and Vanished was praised by officials for elucidating the evidence in the murder of Tara Grinstead and bringing the case to public attention again.
Grinstead was a beauty queen and high school teacher in Ocilla, Georgia, who went missing in 2005. The night before her disappearance she attended a beauty pageant she was coaching and then visited a barbecue. She did not show up for work the next day, which roused the suspicion of her fellow teachers. Police went to Grinstead’s home, where they found her mobile phone inside and her car parked outside. There was no sign of a struggle or forced entry.
The case went cold until 2008, when 48 Hours, a show on CBS News, highlighted similarities between Grinstead’s case and the more recent disappearance of another young woman in Florida. It was then revealed that investigators had found DNA on a latex glove discovered in front of Grinstead’s house. However, they were unable to find a match for the DNA.
Then, in 2009, a man began releasing videos online claiming he had killed 16 women, one of whom was Grinstead. The man’s face and voice were digitally concealed but police managed to identify the creator as Andrew Haley, 27. The video was determined to be a hoax.
In 2016, Up and Vanished released its first season, which unpacked the murder case, going over evidence and interviewing several people.
A year later, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced it had received a tip that implicated a man named Ryan Alexander Duke in Grinstead's murder. Duke had attended Irwin County High School, where Grinstead worked as a teacher three years before her disappearance. According to court documents, Duke had been robbing Grinstead’s home when she caught him in the act. He then strangled her and with the help of a former classmate, Bo Dukes, attempted to cover up the murder.
Dukes, was found guilty in 2019 of helping to conceal the murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Meanwhile, Duke pled not guilty to the killing and inMay, was found not guilty of murder, aggravated assault and burglary, but was convicted of concealing the death. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Season four of Up and Vanished covers Duke’s trial.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Name: Colm McLoughlin
Country: Galway, Ireland
Job: Executive vice chairman and chief executive of Dubai Duty Free
Favourite golf course: Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club
Favourite part of Dubai: Palm Jumeirah
