If like me you were wondering what on earth has happened to David Haigh, our former MD who was found guilty of misappropriating funds from GFH Capital in August, a hearing in Dubai earlier on Monday revealed all.

Yorkshire-born Haigh has now been accused of "Twitter slander" by GFH Capital, who still own a 25% stake in Leeds United and on the third anniversary of Haigh heading what turned out to be a disastrous take-over of our club by the Islamic bank, he now finds himself detained in a Dubai cell for another two weeks.

This means he will spend a second Christmas behind bars in Dubai.

Haigh received a two-year sentence back in August for the misappropriation conviction, something he still denies and has vowed to fight. Given that he had been held in captivity since May 2014, when he arrived in Dubai believing he was going to be offered a new-role with GFH but was subsequently arrested, his release date was set as November 16th.

One month later, he remains in custody. It seems our Arab "sleeping partners" or 25% shareholders are vexed by tweets sent from Haigh's Twitter account whilst he was awaiting trial for the misappropriation charges.

The UAE legal system takes a dim view of anything that may be interpreted and since 2012 cyber crime laws made it an offence to publish anything online "which is contrary to public morals, the principles of Islam and the social and moral welfare of the UAE".

The BBC news website report that there has been a surge of such cases involving ex-patriots of late and Mr Haigh could face a fine of up to £5500 and up to three-years in prison if convicted.

Last week, an interview with former Leeds United Chairman Ken Bates revealed on Radio Yorkshire that Mr Haigh had run into further trouble with GFH Capital.

Haigh has denied the charges, pointing out that the tweets were sent whilst he was in custody by a third-party as he didn't have access to a computer. Although when I last looked his web presence eg his website and Twitter account had not been updated since earlier this year.

However I suppose GFH will argue that he instructed somebody to update the feeds on his behalf thus providing the content they take exception about.

I was quite looking forward to Haigh's release and hearing an insiders-view on exactly what happened behind the scenes as a gruelling seven-month takeover was finally completed on thus very day in 2012.

It was all smiles when Haigh and his GFH co-hort Salim Patel posed for pictures at Elland Road when the deal to buy out Bates, who was reviled by many Leeds United supporters, was finally completed.

We were led to believe GFH had unspecified riches and after years of under-investment in the playing squad, a star-studded line-up was on its way. However Bates has claimed that GFH had to borrow the cash to fund the takeover from a client account with shady-links to the Iranian government and four-months later his wife Suzanna loaned them £1m to meet the day-to-day running costs.

Other bizarre stories of their time at the helm include allegations that players were scouted using a FIFA computer game based on their ratings, CCTV cameras were installed in the boardroom toilets after allegations Class A drugs were being misused and Haigh was ordered to sack then-manager Brian McDermott at half-time during a 6-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in January 2014.

At the end of that month, GFH hastily sold a majority stake to our present incumbent Massimo Cellino.

Cellino, who has come under fire from sections of supporters over his running of the club has apparently returned to his home in Miami for Christmas and will no doubt have a more enjoyable one than Haigh will.

Photo: Action Images

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