Sir Keir Starmer “raised human rights” with the Emirati government during his visit to the Middle East, but did not say whether he had personally demanded the release of a British prisoner arbitrarily detained there.
Ryan Cornelius was originally detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for 10 years as part of a bank fraud case, but authorities extended his detention by 20 years in 2018.
A UN working group found in 2022 that his deprivation of liberty was arbitrary, but the UAE has previously claimed his sentence was “lawfully” extended after he failed to pay the creditor, the Dubai Islamic Bank.
Sir Keir met the country’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on Monday.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the Commons: “Ryan Cornelius has been detained in Dubai for 17 years. His property was seized in what is a very unjudicial process. The Prime Minister has been to UAE.
“I want to ask the Prime Minister whether when he went there, did he now demand that Ryan Cornelius was free, given that the United Nations came to the conclusion that his detention was arbitrary and in violation of international law?
“And following that, would he now make Magnitsky sanctions deliverable on those who were responsible for this after he’s released?”
A Magnitsky sanction – agreed in the years after the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow jail in 2009 after exposing a tax fraud involving Russian officials – could bar foreign individuals from entering or trading in some European and American countries.
Sir Keir replied to Sir Iain: “This is an important case and of course it’s been raised by the Government a number of times, including by the Foreign Secretary (David Lammy) as part of the trip that I was on.
“I myself raised human rights issues, but it is a serious case. We’ll continue to press for the outcome that I know he and his family desperately want.”
The UAE has accused Mr Cornelius of having “illegally obtained a loan of £372 million by bribing staff members at Dubai Islamic Bank”, adding he was sentenced following a “fair trial in which all due processes were followed”.
A UAE official added: “Mr Cornelius was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which was later lawfully extended as he had failed to repay the creditor (Dubai Islamic Bank) during this time – which is in line with UAE law. The whereabouts of the funds Mr Cornelius obtained are unknown.”
