Durham student Mathew Hedges

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"The court also ruled that he would be deported from the country after the execution of the sentence and would be charged the costs of the legal case."

Very magnanimous of them.

Hope it's just a spanking and the diplomatic bods can negotiate an early release for the lad.
 


weebil64 said:
It's ok, Jeremy Hunt is on it!
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Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was "disappointed" by the verdict. Briton on UAE spy charge jailed for life


He has been done for "spying for or on behalf of" the UK government.

Seriously, if he wasn't spying for us (and the government should know if that is the case or not) we should come down really hard on the UAE. Of course we won't.

I'll do my part by not flying Emirates again this year. Not that I was going to anyway :lol:
 
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GingerNick said:
what was he actually doing to get arrested for espionage?

was he asking a few questions or was he trying to obtain classified documents...theres no real details. Spying is just been used as a blanket term
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He was recording interviews with people out there about life there and the impact of the Arab Spring. The way I read it, he got nicked leaving in possession of a load of recording equipment and the recorded interviews.

The thing is the covers used for actual spying might actually include something like this, so I don't know. How our Foreign Office reacts will be interesting. Mind you, as they have a record of minimum help necessary for Brits in trouble abroad, don't expect anything of them.

If he's telling the truth, his supervisors need shooting for sending or allowing him out there to do this. Arab governments will be very tetchy about potential civil unrest.
 
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they accuse him of being a spy for the uk government...to what ends??? surely spies would be a little more covert than interviewing and recording citizens of a foreign country openly
 
MrOompapa said:
Well to be fair, the charge that he is spying is obviously political and completely ludicrous. Given he's a PH.D student specializing in Middle East affairs it is obvious he has went there to reserch and overstepped the mark by asking someone about sensitive material or going where he shouldn't.

It's an unbelievable outcome nonetheless. These gulf state arab monarchies are horrendous (Qatar/Saudi/UAE), yet the west continue to bend over backwards in supporting them near unconditionally whilst pointing figures at similar countries (Iran) for doing the very things they do.
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But if I was a spy, that'd be my cover story.

It's not gonna be he's a PH.D student of spying at GCHQ and has got caught

Although it is most likely bullshit and I hope MI6 James Bond style him out of prison it'll no doubt be a large payment made to them in exchange
 
People seem to dismiss the point that authoritarian regimes tend to have a massively expanded definition of what constitutes "spying" compared to the western sense of the term, simply because there is a much wider range of information out of boards and considered sensitive/classified and less willingness to share it with others.

We might think a spy in the western sense is someone who gathers very specific, insider information about our key institutions and organisations, using special or sinister means to obtain it. Yet because we are an open society, at the same time we would not consider a researcher wanting to interview people or gain basic information about the government, foreign policy, military and so on as a "spy".

Yet in an authoritarian regime, something much more mundane can be opportunistically passed off as it due to the higher degree of political suspicion, which mandates greater coercion to control. Thus, comes the tendency countries for them to exaggerate these types of charges to justify shutting down the undesirable activity.

Whilst yes, I get it that you shouldn't try to challenge the obvious laws, rules and political boundaries of such countries, I don't think he was really a spy.
 
Mackem00 said:
It's amazing how little knowledge and common sense these people who get arrested/jailed mind. Are they never aware of the type of country they are going to?
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He should be aware, apparently he lived there for some of his teenage years and also worked there before his research. I think I read his mother lives there
 
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