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Jeremy Hunt must meet the wife of a British academic jailed for life in the UAE for alleged spying. He is ready to restrict diplomatic cooperation with the United Arab Emirates, one of the UK's closest allies in the Gulf.
Daniela Tejada, her voice shattered when she spoke on Thursday on the BBC's Today show after her return from Dubai, where she saw Matthew Hedges sentenced, said that he was "deadly". she wanted the Foreign Secretary to do everything necessary to bring her husband back home.
She said it was absurd that the United Arab Emirates had found him guilty of espionage of an ally of Britain and accused the Foreign Office of not taking the bribe. matter seriously from the start.
Tejada, a doctoral student at the University of Durham, has repeatedly stated that the Foreign Office had told him that he had no duty of care to Hedges: "I had Impression that they placed their interests with the UAE above the right of a British citizen to freedom and fair trial. They were trampling on eggshells.
"There was no reason for the UAE to think that a close ally should send an undercover officer to spy on them. It's absurd.
She stated that her husband was shaking in court as he read his sentence and had to ask the interpreter to repeat it a second time. Tejada has had no chance to talk to Hedges after being taken away and wants to be assured that he will no longer be kept in solitary confinement.
Tejada said that all confessions extracted from her husband while he was in solitary confinement for six weeks without being able to consult a counselor were worthless. "This means that there was no due process and the evidence is unfounded and should not be used against him," she said.
She added that Hedges had received legal advice only after three hearings and that the Foreign Office had not responded to his weekly requests so that he would be more proactive.
The United Arab Emirates said the decision could be appealed within one month and the country's diplomatic services are aware that the case is seriously affecting relations between the United Kingdom and the UAE United Arab Emirates.
The UAE is a modernist and socially liberal force in the Gulf, but dissent is repressed.
Hunt held what has been described as "a very frank conversation" with Sulaiman Hamid Almazroui, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in London, Thursday morning.
The United Arab Emirates has gained strong support for Conservative seats in the House of Commons, but the case has put the situation under stress. Conservative MPs Johnny Mercer and Crispin Blunt condemned the incarceration of the academic and called on the UK government to be resilient.
Mercer tweeted: "It's ridiculous. Our only defense, mentoring and intelligence support relationship with this country should prevent such absurd acts.
"From a friend and partner, simply unacceptable. The consequences must be immediate until it is released. "
Blunt said: "If he's not released, I do not see why we should commit to defending them."
Thursday, in the House of Lords, the government has been under multi-party pressure to warn the United Arab Emirates that the Hedges case should be heard immediately on appeal, otherwise the relationship could be serious.
Lady Goldie, speaking on behalf of the government, said that the Foreign Office was communicating to the UAE "in the rawest and most brutal terms what had been the reaction of the case to the Kingdom. -United".
She added that the Minister of Foreign Affairs was seeking assurances about the timing of Hedges' appeal hearing, his conditions of detention and access to his family and his lawyers.
She added that there was no immediate plan to change the travel tips to the 120,000 British citizens residing in the United Arab Emirates or to the 11 British universities represented in these countries.
In his Wednesday address, Hunt said, "The UAE is supposed to be a friend and ally of the British people. We gave them repeated assurances about Matthew. If we can not solve that, there will be serious diplomatic consequences. "
Hunt had raised the case with Abu Dhabi 's Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Zayed, earlier this month and declared himself optimistic in private. His performance would bear fruit.
Professor Clive Jones of the University of Durham said that Hedges had been preparing since the Arab Spring a thesis on civil-military relations in the United Arab Emirates, based on a readily accepted literature. He had lived in the country since the age of nine and had written speeches before government officials.
"There was nothing clandestine or secretive in the material that he was using up to now in his thesis," Jones said.
"He went to the United Arab Emirates to conduct a series of interviews to clarify some of the theories and empirical evidence that he had actually gathered.
"If we had any idea that Matt, in any way, was in danger, we would of course not have let him go."
He added that there should be a moratorium on field research by British academics working in the Gulf.
