The UK’s parliamentary ombudsman has found that the Foreign Office “failed to notice signs of torture” when officials visited a British academic imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates.
Matthew Hedges was convicted on spying charges by the UAE in 2018 after travelling to Dubai to conduct research for his PhD at Durham University. He spent six months in prison, where he has said he had been handcuffed, drugged and questioned for hours, before being pardoned from a life sentence for spying.
The ombudsman wrote in its finding: “It’s hard to imagine the experience Mr Hedges has endured and quite how terrifying his detention must have been. The nightmare was made even worse by being failed by the British government. He trusted them to help him and they let him down. Officials failed to notice signs of torture, failed to intervene and failed to help.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Hedges said he hoped the finding would prevent people in similar circumstances from enduring the same treatment.
“It’s a personal victory for me to know that it wasn’t just my experience, but others recognised that the pain, the abuse I suffered for a prolonged amount of time, it didn’t just happen in my mind, it is something that did happen to me and I’m a victim of it. At its core, this is the first step in enabling me to truly heal,” he said.
He turned to the ombudsman after waiting for the Foreign Office to undertake a promised investigation, which never happened, he said. “Throughout this time we haven’t heard a single thing.”
One of the reasons given for not pursuing Hedges’ claims of torture, according to the ombudsman, was the Foreign Office policy of not raising complaints or allegations without consent.
The ombudsman’s findings noted: “The director [a senior Foreign Office official] admitted the policy may appear illogical in circumstances where a detained person feels that they are unable to communicate freely … However, the policy reflects the reality that people may choose not to have allegations of mistreatment or torture raised with the authorities, as they may believe that it could make matters worse.”
It also said the Foreign Office’s human rights adviser did not have security clearance to advise on Hedges’ case, a complication the ombudsman said was possible to overcome.
The ombudsman’s report said that in its records made at the time concerning Hedges, there was no acknowledgment by the Foreign Office “of the frequency of UAE torture and mistreatment allegations”.
Hedges said the Foreign Office knew torture occurred in the UAE, and that officials would have seen signs, for example during the first meeting Hedges was joined by “several men in black in masks”, in a “restrictive” and “oppressive” environment.
Asked whether he would accept financial compensation, Hedges said he “wouldn’t turn [it] down” but that the £1,500 proposed at present was a “paltry sum” relative to his experience.
He said his priority was a “formal apology from the Foreign Office” and tangible changes to help others in similar circumstances, citing the examples of Ali Issa Ahmad, the British tourist who was falsely arrested and tortured in the UAE in 2019 and the British Sikh campaigner Jagtar Singh Johal, who was unlawfully arrested and tortured in India.
Hedges said he was angered by what he perceived as a cosy relationship between the UK and the UAE, with the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, taking part in a hunting trip with the UAE’s ambassador, and two ministers receiving gifts in parliament from two Emirati officials Hedges has a lawsuit against for torture.
Hedges’ wife, Daniela Tejada, who campaigned for his release, said the ombudsman’s report was “gratifying” and that she hoped it would improve state accountability towards citizens.
She said that when she had approached British consular officials after Hedges was abducted, they had “insisted they didn’t have a duty of care towards him, so anything they did or did not do was down to someone’s discretion, and I should be grateful for it”. She recalled that when she raised concerns about torture at the time, “I was completely dismissed”.
A spokesperson for the UAE government said Hedges had been convicted of espionage after “a fair and transparent trial at which he admitted the charges against him”.
They added: “Allegations by Mr Hedges of mistreatment are categorically false and lack evidentiary basis. His claims of being ‘tortured’ while in UAE custody are wholly untrue and without any foundation whatsoever. None of Mr Hedges’ claims have ever been accepted by any court, government, or international body.”
