Briton jailed ‘over tweet' in Saudi Arabia is being failed by UK, say family
A British man jailed for 10 years in Saudi Arabia, reportedly over a tweet he wrote seven years ago, has done nothing wrong and is being failed by the UK, his family have said.
Ahmed al-Doush, 41, a banking business analyst of Sudanese heritage from Manchester, is believed to have been jailed by a Saudi judge on Monday after being held for nine months in al-Hair Prison in the capital, Riyadh.
Non-governmental organisation Reprieve is supporting Mr al-Doush's worried family as they try to get more information and secure his release.
His wife, Amaher Nour, was told her husband had been jailed by a lawyer who represented him in the Saudi court, but further information has been sparse.
She said on Tuesday: 'To the UK Government Ahmed is just another statistic on a long list of British citizens detained abroad. To me and my kids he is everything.
'That's why the news yesterday that Ahmed was sentenced to 10 years in a Saudi Arabian jail is heartbreaking, even more so that we don't know why.
'And so the nightmare my family has endured for the past eight months continues into a never-ending abyss, exacerbated by the lack of clear information provided to us by the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office).
'Before the judgment was handed down, Ahmed was already suffering with back and thyroid issues and was becoming increasingly mentally distressed. I can only imagine what he is going through now, knowing he won't see his family again for years.
'He should be at home surrounded by his loved ones, not in an overcrowded cell surrounded by second-hand cigarette smoke.
'Yesterday it became clear how badly the UK Government has failed me and my husband.
'The judgment needs to be a wake-up call for the Foreign Secretary to act. Our children need their father. He has done nothing wrong.'
Mr al-Doush was first detained in the Kingdom on August 31 last year as he prepared to fly home with his family following a holiday.
His wife, pregnant with their fourth child at the time, was allowed to return to the UK but her husband was arrested.
The exact reason for his detention and imprisonment remains unclear.
Human rights group Amnesty International said Mr al-Doush was subjected to extensive interrogation without a lawyer present and before being informed of the charges against him.
During interrogations, he was reportedly told that if not for his social media activity, he would be home with his family.
Mr al-Doush has 41 followers on his X account. According to reports from his family, the 'offending' tweet, written in 2018 and since deleted, is thought to have related to the war in Sudan, which provided military support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
Jeed Basyouni, Reprieve's head of death penalty for the Middle East and North Africa, said: 'For the past eight months, Ahmed's family have grappled not only with losing a father and husband, but with the FCDO failing to push hard enough for his release.
'Ahmed's case underscores that something is seriously wrong with the UK Government's approach to its citizens arbitrarily detained abroad, and now Ahmed and his family are the latest people to suffer the consequences.
'It is staggering that the Foreign Office still doesn't know what Ahmed has been charged with, but there are indications it relates to a single tweet.
'Will the UK Government stand idly by while a British family is torn apart, apparently over a social media post?'
Amnesty said that, for two-and-a-half months after his arrest, Mr al-Doush's family was denied any communication with him or given the reason for his arrest.
He was also denied consular access to UK Government representatives, the charity said.
In November last year, he was allowed a call to his wife and then permitted weekly phone calls with his family.
But in January this year, the calls were interrupted and have now become sporadic.
The PA news agency has contacted the UK Embassy of Saudi Arabia for comment.
The case has been raised multiple times with the Saudi authorities by Hamish Falconer, minister for the Middle East and North Africa, according to the FCDO.
A spokeswoman for the department said: 'We are supporting a British man who is detained in Saudia (sic) Arabia and are in contact with his family and the local authorities.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
Trans former judge says Supreme Court gender ruling risks lives
The UK's only judge to ever publicly say they are transgender has told the BBC she is concerned the Supreme Court's ruling on biological sex puts lives at risk and fears "someone's going to get killed" because of Victoria McCloud is planning to take the government to the European Court of Human Rights over the April ruling, which said a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities led to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issuing new interim guidance to services and businesses on access to public facilities, such as toilets and changing Forstater, of campaign group Sex Matters, said Dr McCloud's comments were "alarmism". Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on Newscast, the BBC's daily news podcast, Dr McCloud said: "This incident is putting lives at risk. I can't go out to the pub now, for example. It might not be the be all and end all of life but I am a lawyer."I've got to use the men's loos in a south London pub with a bunch of blokes who are drunk. I mean, come on. That's now government policy. Someone's going to get killed."Dr McCloud said she agreed with an argument put forward by "the gender critical ideological movement" that it is "risky" or "at least rather intimidating" to have a space designated for women, such as a changing room, that is occupied by men."But that applies to me too," she to the full Newscast interview on BBC Sounds"That danger is all the more if it is not going to be me and a bunch of women and one man, instead it's me - one woman - in an entirely male space in a drunk pub."That's absolutely clearly dangerous."Ms Forstater said: "Women have already been assaulted and many, many are self-excluding because of the policy Dr McCloud endorses of allowing men to self-identify into women's toilets, showers and changing rooms."Where's the concern for the female half of the population who need privacy, safety and dignity?"If McCloud isn't comfortable using male-only spaces, then there are usually gender-neutral options available. This is irresponsible alarmism."In the wake of the unanimous Supreme Court judgement, Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme in April, stopped short of explicitly saying trans women should use the men's toilets. She said: "The ruling was clear that provisions and services should be accessed on the basis of biological sex."Pushed further for clarification on whether a trans woman should use the men's or women's toilets, she repeated: "The ruling is clear."The EHRC has already suggested trans people should use their "powers of advocacy" to campaign for so-called third spaces that are gender-neutral to avoid these sorts of Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in April the ruling gave "much-needed clarity" for those drawing up guidance."We need to move and make sure that we now ensure that all guidance is in the right place according to that judgement."A woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear."Dr McCloud moved to Ireland after leaving her job as a judge last year and says she visits the UK only on essential said she is going to challenge the Supreme Court judgement at the ECHR, arguing the court did not hear from trans people before its ruling, and therefore breached her human Supreme Court did consider arguments on trans issues from the human rights campaign group Amnesty International, but not from exclusively trans activists.
The Sun
19 minutes ago
- The Sun
Fury as it costs more to cage a teenage killer than put them up in a ‘superior twin' room at The Ritz
IT COSTS more to cage a teenage killer than put them up at The Ritz, shock figures reveal. Taxpayers foot an annual bill of £336,000 — £921 per night — to keep a young lag at a Secure Training Centre. 2 A room at London's Ritz can cost £775 a night, or £900 for a 'superior twin' room. John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers will find these figures difficult to believe. 'Keeping dangerous child prisoners locked up is inevitably going to be expensive, but the current cost cited is so high that inefficiencies must be present. 'At the very least, the Prison Service needs to be transparent as to why costs are so high.' Places at Oakhill Secure Training Centre, near Milton Keynes, Bucks, are the most expensive in the prison estate — costing seven times the £122 per night for some adult jails. Those there are believed to include two 13-year-old machete murderers of Shawn Seesahai, 19 — attacked in Wolverhampton in 2023. It is run by private firm G4S, holds up to 80 children and is currently the country's only operational STC. Young Offender Institutions come in at £329. A spokesman said: 'Children in custody are largely there for serious offences and have needs requiring more support.' Woman left 'boiling' with rage after paying £125 to visit her man behind bars but trolls say it's 'prison not Butlins' 2
Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Jewish football writer's son: I'll not let Gary Lineker anywhere near Dad's memorial after antisemitic rat emoji post
Gary Lineker will be barred from paying tribute at a memorial service for a friend, football writer Brian Glanville, because of his attacks on Israel. Celebrated reporter Glanville, who died aged 93, was Jewish and his son Mark said: 'I am not having Lineker anywhere near Dad's memorial.' Mark's sister Jo had suggested asking Lineker to speak at a service at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street as the family knew he had been friends with Glanville since his early days at Leicester. But Lineker, 64, has been forced to leave his Match Of The Day role early after sharing an anti-Zionism post that had an illustration of a rat, which is how the Nazis characterised Jews. Mark said: 'I can't have somebody coming to speak at my Dad's memorial service who, though not anti-Semitic, is someone who is giving ammunition to people who are anti-Semites. 'Once you share a picture of a rat which is associated with Nazis, you really are crossing a line.' He added that Glanville, who died last month after suffering from Parkinson's Disease, would not have wanted Lineker to speak, despite his admiration for him as a player and Match Of The Day host. He said the horrors of the Holocaust deeply affected Glanville, who was born in 1931 and suffered anti-Semitic abuse at fee-paying Charterhouse School. Mark said: 'Dad was passionate about Israel. He was a schoolboy during the Second World War but he was aware of what happened. 'He saw Israel, after all the utter horror, like so many Jews, as a country that was Jewish and where Jews could thrive as Jews and be safe. 'I do not think Lineker is an anti-Semite. But he does single out almost exclusively Israel, as so many people do, with the type of criticism that gives no context of what happened on October 7 and what has triggered it all. 'As he is such a major public figure, he is lending a lot of fuel to people who have a very different agenda and who really don't just hate Israel, but also detest Jews. 'I believe Lineker really cares about issues but I wish he would talk about what is going on in Syria, in Sudan and with women in Afghanistan.' Glanville was an award-winning football correspondent for The Sunday Times for 30 years and wrote several novels. Mark said: 'We felt that for a man of such stature, Dad deserved a proper memorial service and my sister suggested inviting Gary Lineker to speak, saying that he had really loved Dad's work. 'But I said that while this was undoubtedly the case, loads of other people were admirers of Dad's work as well. I then said there was no way Lineker was coming anywhere near it. 'She was very understanding as I explained that in my view Lineker was an exceptionally talented footballer and that is where it should have stayed.' In 2007, recalling his most memorable footballing moments, Glanville cited the 1992 Euros tournament when England manager Graham Taylor 'inexplicably' substituted Lineker in a crucial match with Sweden. 'And England lost,' added Glanville in his trademark disdain, lamenting Taylor's foolish decision and supporting Lineker, playing his last match for England.
