Matthew Joyce with his family. Picture: Siddarth Siva
AFTER almost five years of being in limbo in Dubai with her three young children, the wife of jailed Australian property developer Matthew Joyce says she may be forced to break up her family.
Angela Higgins has revealed the agonising decision she is forced to make between staying in Dubai to support her husband and returning to Australia for the sake of her children, Jack, 11, Clancy 9, and William, 7.
Higgins said the family lives a "fish bowl life", and she fears her husband may never be able to return to Australia.
She now believes diplomatic intervention is the only way her family will ever return home together.
"I think without forceful representations from the Australian government, we will never return to Australia as a whole family," Higgins said.
"I can't stress enough that we need the Australian government.
"We're both emotionally and mentally exhausted."
The family is hopeful that their Australian legal team will be able to meet with the new Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop next week.
In May, a Dubai court found Joyce guilty of accepting a $6 million bribe while he worked for state-owned property company in order to dupe Gold Coast developer Sunland. He was sentenced to 10 years' jail and leveed with a $US25 million fine.
A parallel case in Victoria found the charges groundless, but discredited testimony from two key witnesses, Sunland's chief officer in Dubai, David Brown, and Sunland executive chairman, Soheil Abedian, was allowed to stand in Dubai.
"You've got two stark contrasts in results," said Higgins.
Joyce is appealing the Dubai decision, and the next hearing will be held on October 20.
It's unclear whether the Dubai Court of Appeal will allow Joyce to call witnesses in the appeal or whether the court will close the case for judgment.
Higgins said the family's legal team has advised that it is very difficult to overturn a 10-year sentence in Dubai.
If the Dubai Court of Appeal acquits Joyce, then it's possible that the Dubai prosecutor might appeal the acquittals to the highest court in Dubai, the Court of Cassation.
If Joyce's conviction isn't overturned, then he will appeal to the Court of Cassation.
In Australia, Sunland has withdrawn, just days after it was filed, its application to the High Court seeking to freeze the release of the legal costs awarded against it by the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Higgins appealed to Brown, who was found to be an unreliable witness and who admitted that the evidence he gave in Dubai was inaccurate, to correct the record and help her family.
"We believe it's absolutely critical that he comes back to Dubai to correct the record, or at the very least writes an authorised letter retracting his statements and correcting the record," she said.
Angela Higgins on the beach in Dubai with the famous Burj Al Arab in the background. Picture: Neville Hopwood
"I'd like to think that a sense of human decency would prevail - he's a family man, he's got children himself, he's lived here and he knows what it's like to live here and be afraid here.
"I'd like him to put himself in our family's shoes and feel for what we're suffering.
"He can make some efforts that would, could, make a considerable difference to our situation, and I would really appreciate him coming forward and officially correcting the record."
It was revealed earlier this year that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confidentially noted the 2009 Dubai property boom and bust saw a number of foreign nationals from Australia, the United States, UK and Canada "caught up in the government's prosecution of people they felt were responsible".
Higgins said the family was very grateful to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard for phoning Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and also grateful for statements made by then-Opposition leader Tony Abbott and Victorian Senator Helen Kroger after the verdict in May.
"They were obviously in Opposition then so it would be nice to know that they meant those words and will explore every possible avenue to find a way to support us more," said Higgins, who is now in possession of her passport that she had to surrender.
"It was three years of attending court for them to see that they could let me have my passport back and my husband would still be here," she said.
Joyce is currently on bail residing in the family home in a suburban compound, but cannot leave the U.A.E.
His wife said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and is profoundly uncomfortable outside the compound gate.
"We live a very fish bowl sort of life," she said.
Higgins said the family is coming up to another really difficult period going through the appeal process.
"He's walking on eggshells - very fragile - and he hasn't slept properly for four years but especially lately," she said.
If Joyce's appeal is unsuccessful, he will remain in jail after serving out his 10-year sentence if he cannot pay the $25 million fine.
Higgins said that for the past year, she and Joyce have discussed the possibility of her being forced to return to Australia with their children, leaving him behind.
"Matt has always said, 'You and the kids should go home, just get out of here, go home, you'll have a better life,' and we've said no, we're staying together," said Higgins.
"That last resort scenario is pretty nigh now.
"We're really facing a situation here where financially, I might have to go home. "There's a point where you're at a dead end completely, financially."
Higgins said the family has lived off their savings for the past four years, along with donations and loans from family and friends.
"It's a horrible, horrible situation, and I'm very upset for the thought of my kids not having their father around because while it's been very difficult all of us being in the house all the time and him at home and not going to an office, he's been very hands on and they will hugely notice his absence," she said.
"I think if you ask the kids how we're coping, they'd say, 'Mummy's grumpy all the time.'"
Higgins said she tries to maintain a semblance of normalcy for her children, like Thursday night movies at home.
"I decided really early on, as soon as it started, that this is their childhood, and I'm not missing it for the world.
"If I miss their childhood because I'm so distracted by a major trauma in our lives, then the authorities and other people who are seeking to harm us have won.
"And no, they're not taking my spirit, they're not taking my enjoyment of this precious, precious time.
"I had a two-year-old, a four-year-old and a six-year-old when this started.
"This has been effectively their whole childhood, and these are the magic years just stolen from us."
Higgins said that after the verdict in May, she and her husband had to explain their predicament to the children.
"Matt was a shaking wreck, but I said, 'Come on, you can't have them discovering all of this years later,' so we sat down in front of them but we didn't say, 'Your father has been sentenced to ten years.'
"Clancy's first question was, 'Is Daddy going back to jail?'
Higgins said she feels tremendous guilt that her children aren't getting access to their ageing grandparents.
"You feel like a rat stuck in a hole, and I just ache to go home because I get so homesick and I worry for my parents, and his parents, who are getting on now."
She said that recent Australian media reports casting doubt over Joyce's version of events caused tremendous pain, and further entrenched their sense of isolation.
"If Matt was capable of all these insidious things, do you think I would have stuck around here for four years?" she said.
"It's a complete misrepresentation, both of the facts and of who Matthew is as a person.
"Why has he got all of these business people all over Australia lobbying every level of government for him, because they don't believe in him?
"No, because they know the measure of the man."
Higgins said her husband takes a lot of heart from the website mattjoyce.com.au.
"Definitely Matt takes a lot of heart from that website and it means a lot to him that people went to the effort to do that and to write in because it's one thing to have your career, your ability to support your family, your money all ripped away from you, but at the end of the day, that doesn't matter and it's replaceable but your reputation and your character are not replaceable," she said.
"I think the repercussions of all of this, even if it ended today, is going to be in our lives for years if not decades to come.
"There's going to be a lot of emotional fallout once we don't have to hold it together anymore, I'm really quite afraid of that period.
"We'll need some counselling then.
"Everyone says to us, 'Write the book, do the movie.'
"We just want our lives back, we just want to move forward and put this behind us."
