![\"Marcus](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2.78270927.jpg\")
Marcus Fakana died in hospital on Friday (Detained in Dubai\/PA)<\/p>\nMarcus Fakana, 19, died in hospital in the early hours of Friday after police tried to stop a vehicle at around 12.52am in Tottenham, north London.<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan Police said its officers were attempting to stop a \u201cvehicle of interest\u201d on Pretoria Road, and after a short pursuit, police temporarily lost sight of the vehicle.<\/p>\n
Officers then drove onto The Roundway and found the vehicle had been involved a crash with another vehicle.<\/p>\n
Mr Fakana, who was 18 at the time of the relationship, received a royal pardon from Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in July after being sentenced to one year in prison.<\/p>\n
Radha Sterling, chief executive of campaign group Detained in Dubai, said she was \u201cheartbroken\u201d to share the news.<\/p>\n
She told the PA news agency: \u201cMarcus spent the majority of this year in a Dubai prison which no doubt caused him long lasting mental anguish.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sad that of all of 2025, he was only free for the three months from the 3rd of July until the 3rd of October.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Fakana had been with his parents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the end of August 2024 when a \u201choliday romance blossomed\u201d with another Londoner, who has since turned 18, Detained in Dubai previously said.<\/p>\n
After returning to the UK and seeing pictures and messages, the girl\u2019s mother reported the relationship to Dubai police, who then arrested Mr Fakana at his hotel, it is alleged.<\/p>\n
In Dubai, if an adult has a sexual relationship with a person under 18, they can be prosecuted for having a sexual relationship with a minor.<\/p>\n
Marcus Fakana died in hospital on Friday (Detained in Dubai\/PA)<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan Police said its officers provided \u201cimmediate first aid\u201d at the scene before paramedics arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe passenger, a man aged 19, had significant injuries,\u201d the force said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was taken to hospital where, despite the best efforts of emergency services and medical staff, he died a short time later. His next of kin have been informed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe driver, a man also aged 19, was arrested after the collision on suspicion of failure to stop and dangerous driving. He remains in police custody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Sterling added: \u201c(Mr Fakana\u2019s) loss is a painful reminder of how precious life is and how unnecessary imprisonment robs people of time they can never regain.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day of freedom matters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Fakana, 19, died in hospital in the early hours of Friday after police tried to stop a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-473166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}