The wife of a Scots man jailed in Iraq over an unpaid £20,000 Qatar bank loan has told how she fears he is unwell after a distressing phone call from his Baghdad prison. Brian Glendinning, from Kincardine, Fife, was due to start work as a construction engineer at BP oil refinery but was instead detained after flying into Basra International Airport on September 4.
The 43-year-old was shocked to discover there had been an Interpol Red Notice issued from Qatar over the unpaid debt, which was taken out in 2016. His family previously told the Daily Record that the dad-of-three had been paying the money back until he was forced to give up his job the following year due to ill health.
Brian’s wife Kimberley said she fears for her husband's welfare amid claims of 'terrible conditions' behind bars. She received a heartbreaking phone call from the detention facility where Brian has been for over a month.
She said: “He’s not well. He has no energy. I really think he’s given up. The conditions are terrible.
“We’re trying to get paracetamol for him and a visitation by the embassy. It’s disheartening when you hear stories from others who have been jailed for over a year before eventually being exonerated and released.
“Brian’s in an extreme situation, it’s unimaginable and it could happen to anyone”.
His brother, John Glendinning, who also works as an engineer, has been tirelessly campaigning for his sibling’s release and to reunite him with his worried loved ones. Radha Stirling, an extradition crisis consultant who has been helping the family, said: “He doesn’t stop. John is constantly messaging me asking what more he can do.
“It’s a desperate situation and they are well aware that they could lose their beloved family member. No family should have to go through this. Brian’s MP has written to Qatar’s Ambassador to the UK to step in and help.
Douglas Chapman, MP for Dunfermline & West Fife, said: “I’m aware of the case involving Brian which has been raised with me as his MP. We have been in touch with both the family here and the Foreign Office in London and Baghdad.
“Through the efforts of Brian’s family, their legal people on the ground in Iraq and with the support of the Foreign Office and Radha Stirling [a campaigner on unjust detentions], we are trying to secure Mr Glendinning’s release and his safe return home to Scotland.
“With the World Cup due to start soon in Qatar this is not the time for the event’s hosts to be in the news for all the wrong reasons and I hope, in this case, good sense can prevail.”
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: “We are providing support to a British man who has been arrested in Iraq and are in touch with the local authorities.”
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