EU doing more than UK to help Briton detained in Dubai, says family

Telegraph

14-07-2025

The family of a British man who has been locked up in Dubai for 17 years have said the European Union is doing more to free him than the Government.
Heather Cornelius, whose husband Ryan is detained by the UAE, said Brussels had given her 'hope again' after 17 years of failures by the Foreign Office to secure her partner's release.
It came after the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the immediate release of Mr Cornelius, and for the British Government 'to take all necessary action' to facilitate that.
The resolution, backed by 511 MEPs, also criticised the charges against Mr Cornelius, 71, as 'false' and a breach of international law.
Mr Cornelius was convicted of defrauding Dubai Islamic Bank in 2008, alongside two fellow expats, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
At the end of their original sentences in 2018, a judge extended their sentences by 20 years in response to an application by the Islamic bank.
Chris Pagett, Mr Cornelius' brother-in-law and a Foreign Office veteran of 32 years, said the family's calls for support from the Government had failed because diplomats were attempting to protect their ties with the UAE.
Mr Pagett told The Telegraph: 'It's not that we've given up. We're very much trying to engage the British Government, but the Government and the Foreign Office are clearly in a bind over this case, or over anything that sort of creates turbulence around what it regards as one of its key sort of foreign relationships, the relationship with the UAE.'
One of the proposals put forward by the family, alongside Sir William Browder, the American-born English financier and political activist, is sanctions against Dubai officials involved in Mr Cornelius' imprisonment.
Mr Pagett said: 'They [Dubai] should worry about sanctions, but they're clearly not worried.
'They know that the British Government will never dare to do it. They don't have that same comfort with the EU.'
He said the European Commission had discussed an 'explicit link' between Mr Cornelius's case and a trade deal between the bloc and UAE.
The EU Parliament's resolution will force top Brussels officials to also raise his imprisonment with counterparts in Dubai and Britain.
This renewed focus on Mr Cornelius couldn't come at a more important time for the family, who feel like Labour has largely ignored them since winning power.
Lord Cameron, the former Conservative, had given them hope, appearing to know the case inside-out when they first met and promising to put it at the top of his to-do list.
This sense of urgency was extinguished when David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, took over, despite the family urging him to impose financial sanctions on one of the Gulf emirate's most senior officials.
Mrs Cornelius described their first meeting with Hamish Falconer, a junior minister for the Middle East and North Africa, as 'devastating'.
'His opening words were: 'I can't offer you any hope',' she said.
Shortly after Sir Keir Starmer met Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Dubai's president, he was unable to say whether he'd raised Mr Cornelius's detention, in response to a question in the House of Commons.
Mrs Cornelius, an Irish passport holder, has turned to Brussels for help because of the apparent resistance of the British Government to assist.
She fears her time left with her ageing husband is being stolen away from her because of his imprisonment. Her three children, now in their late twenties and early thirties, have already grown up without their father.
'We don't have very long, Ryan and I,' she said. 'I'm 65 and Ryan is 71, you see what little time you do have left when you get older.'
The 65-year-old had spent decades trying to enlist the help of the Government and only switched tactics when it felt like her efforts had become futile.
She said: 'We went to Dublin and Brussels in the last couple of months. And it's incredible, absolutely incredible, what they have achieved in that short time.
'They said to me, 'why hasn't the British Government helped you more?' They find it implausible. They don't understand.'
She said it had become hard to 'hold onto hope' until the EU Parliament passed its resolution. 'It has really given me a huge amount of hope again, and Ryan, he just couldn't believe it, it was fantastic,' Mrs Cornelius added.