[ad_1]
Multimedia playback is not supported on your device
The wife of a British student jailed for espionage in the UAE said that the British government put the UK's interests ahead of its right to liberty.
Daniela Tejada spoke to the BBC shortly after her return to the UK after leaving Abu Dhabi, where she saw Matthew Hedges of Durham University sentenced to life imprisonment.
The 31-year-old denies having spied, but prosecutors claimed that he had confessed.
Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt met with the United Arab Emirates ambassador in London earlier for "a very frank conversation".
Theresa May said she was "deeply concerned" by the situation, adding that she was "being raised to the highest level" in the UAE.
Hedges, a native of Exeter, said he had gone to the country to conduct a study on the security strategy of the United Arab Emirates as part of his doctoral dissertation when he was at home. he had been arrested at the Dubai airport on May 5.
Tejada, who is scheduled to meet later with Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt, told BBC Radio 4's Today Today that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office had "trampled the shell of eggs instead of taking a firm position ". had been released on bail on October 29 after months of solitary confinement.
"I had the impression that they were placing their interests with the UAE above the legitimate freedom and well-being of a British citizen," Ms. Tejada said.
"Unacceptable conditions"
She said she contacted the Foreign Office "every week" since her husband's arrest in May.
"They just ignored my demands, they said it was not part of their job, nor their duty," she continued.
"On one occasion, one of the social workers stated that the Foreign Office had no duty of care and that he was therefore not obliged to do any such thing. representations. "
Copyright of the image
Daniela Tejada / PA Wire
Tejada said the Foreign Ministry had ignored her first requests for help while her husband was being held in solitary confinement.
She said: "I think that they should have taken a firmer position from the beginning, if not publicly, through their private representations.
"It's something that they have not managed to do since the beginning.
"He was detained in unacceptable conditions for something that he did not do."
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said his heart "felt shared" by Hedges and his family, but Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt "personally brought the case to the Crown Prince on November 12" .
He said today: "The Foreign Office acted on behalf of Hedges at the highest possible level".
Ms. Tejada said that she had not been able to talk to her husband since he had been sentenced, but she could "imagine that he was as helpless as me."
"He was very frightened in front of the judge," she said, because he was aware of the possibility of receiving an arbitrary judgment.
"I asked him to look at me when he felt too nervous and he tried to do it a few times but was asked to face the judge."
She said that Hedges was shaking when the translator told him the sentence and "asked to check if he had heard it well".
Copyright of the image
EPA / DANIELA TEJADA
Ms. Tejada stated that there had been no due process, adding, "He was subjected to such tension for six months that nothing he said or did n & # 39; 39, could be used against him.
"All that is used against Matt is completely unfounded."
She then told Reuters: "To condemn in perpetuity an innocent researcher who has held the UAE in high esteem speaks volumes about their lack of tolerance and disrespect for human life."
United Arab Emirates Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said Hedges had "confessed in detail his crimes" and "been granted all rights" with "a fair and transparent trial".
But his family says that a document that he signed and which later came to light as a confession was in Arabic, that he could neither speak nor read, and that he did not know what to say. He arrived after being interrogated without a lawyer or consular aide.
The Attorney General stated that the sentence, which would require Hedges to serve a maximum of 25 years in prison prior to his deportation, was not final because Hedges had the right to appeal.
Analysis: Send a spy "does not make sense"
By BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner:
Britain has a very deep and long-standing defense relationship with the United Arab Emirates – they are an ally.
There are about 200 British members based in the UAE. There is an air base called Al Minhad, just south of Dubai, where typhoons and tornadoes of the RAF follow one another, especially for flights to Afghanistan. There is a port called Port Zayed, which is the port of the Royal Navy the most visited in the world. And hundreds of UAE officers are trained at the Sandhurst Military Academy.
We have a very close relationship with the United Arab Emirates in the areas of defense, security and the fight against terrorism, although there is no indication that this threat is threatened, if the situation worsens. Calls to reconsider this relationship will intensify.
The suggestion of sending a spy makes no sense. I'm sure MI6 would use academics to spy on a place if they could, but only in countries that are difficult to target. I can not imagine what an academic might remove from the UAE without asking directly to the UAE.
There is nothing I can see that Matthew Hedges has done that would anyway be spying. There are much greater sensitivities than in this country – someone has denounced to the authorities, saying that he is asking suspicious questions.
I knew someone – an excellent officer – who was arrested because he had angry the wrong person and did not have the connections that would get him out of jail.
Professor Clive Jones, Hedges Supervisor at the University of Durham, said that there should now be a "moratorium" on sending field students to the UAE. and in the Gulf region.
He added that Mr. Hedges had been interested in civil-military relations in the UAE since the Arab Spring and that "the material he had was not clandestine or secret."
He added that there was no "omen" about the danger and that Mr. Hedges was "no stranger" to the United Arab Emirates because he "lived there intermittently" since the age of nine.
Multimedia playback is not supported on your device
Professor Jones said, "He knew a lot of the people he was going to talk to, so it's totally weird, if not perverse, and even a miscarriage of justice, it has happened to him."
Conservative MP Johnny Mercer tweeted it would be "absolutely shameful" if Ms. Tejada's assertions were true, adding, "We have no interest with the United Arab Emirates that outweighs the rights and freedoms of our citizens at the same time. foreign."
He had previously stated that the case was "unacceptable" and that "the consequences must be immediate until his release." The required resilience ".
[ad_2]Source link
