The British state has been condemned following the life sentencing of a student accused of spying for them against the UAE. The accused’s wife slammed the govt for “putting their UAE interests above a citizen’s rightful freedom.”
Daniela Tejada hit out at the Foreign Office, shortly after returning to the UK from Abu Dhabi, where she saw her husband, Matthew Hedges, jailed for life. Hedges denies the charges against him, while UAE prosecutors claim that he confessed.
Tejada accused UK officials of disregarding her requests for representations, in an interview with the BBC, despite claiming she contacted the Foreign Office “on a weekly basis,” since her husband’s arrest in May.
Tejada said: “I was under the impression they were putting their interests with the UAE above a British citizen’s rightful freedom and welfare.
“They just disregarded my requests, they said it wasn’t part of their job, it wasn’t part of their duty,” she continued.
“On one occasion, one of the case workers said the Foreign Office did not have a duty of care so weren’t obliged to make such representations.”
Tejada told the Times that she had asked then-UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, to be left out of any attempts to free her husband, due to the way he had mishandled the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian mother jailed for spying in Iran.
Current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt responded to the ruling by saying: “I am deeply shocked and disappointed,” adding it would have “repercussions for the relationship between our two countries.”
Despite the government’s supposed concern, a UK trade minister, Baroness Rona Fairhead CBE, called for stronger post-Brexit trade links between the UK and UAE on November 14.
READ MORE: British student jailed for life for ‘spying’ on UAE, UK warns of ‘repercussions’
Some of Hunt and Johnson’s colleagues have lambasted the treatment of the PhD student. Tory MP Johnny Mercer, a former British Army officer, claimed the UAE’s strong defense ties with the UK should have been reason enough to stop “absurd things like this happening.” UAE troops are trained by UK officers and 200 Emiratis have graduated from the military school, Sandhurst.
According to analysis of defense exports cleared by Liam Fox’s Department for International Trade (DIT), arms sales to the UAE rose by 94 percent to £260mn in 2017.
Hedges’ case is proving to be a test of the UK’s international power.
Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai and a leading legal expert on the UAE, told RT the life sentence for Hedges “sent shockwaves through the British and international community as well as the academic community.”
She claims the UAE has reached a point whereby they feel confident enough to carry out unlawful actions without fear of serious international repercussions.
“The country has become so confident that it believes throwing money around the UK and US is a licence to jail, torture, kidnap and kill,” Stirling said.
Hedges’ hearing only lasted five minutes and his lawyer was not present, according to a spokesperson for the family. The student, from Exeter, Devon, now has 30 days to appeal his convictions of spying and sharing sensitive security and intelligence information to third parties.
A life sentence in the UAE includes a maximum of 25 years in jail and can be followed by deportation.
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