Durham student Mathew Hedges



Harry Angstrom said:
You have more experience of these people.

Personally, I don't give a shit about drowned pissed students or falsely imprisoned students. I could pretend to but I really don't. It's a flaw I have to live with.
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me neither tbh but I wouldn't object to them putting a fence up to try and prevent another student falling in. Stopping daft twats doing silly things in backwards countries is tougher.
I predict they'll let him out within six months with a pardon from the top man to show what nice chaps they really are
 
I'd quite like to hear more about what it is he was researching?

It's a pretty wide term.

If he was over there researching the mating habits of a native species of butterfly that's one thing; if he was researching the military procurement process, it's potentially quite another.
 
Hulkster said:
I'd quite like to hear more about what it is he was researching?

It's a pretty wide term.

If he was over there researching the mating habits of a native species of butterfly that's one thing; if he was researching the military procurement process, it's potentially quite another.
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If it was something political/to do with the military etc. then I'm surprised that 1. His university did not strongly discourage him from going over there and collecting the information 2. He never thought it could land him in hot water, considering he is at a PHD student at a top 5 UK university and surely the risks would raise internal alarm bells for anyone with common sense.

I reckon there may be more to the story. I'd not disregard the possibility that he could indeed could have been a spy.
 
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Hulkster said:
I'd quite like to hear more about what it is he was researching?

It's a pretty wide term.

If he was over there researching the mating habits of a native species of butterfly that's one thing; if he was researching the military procurement process, it's potentially quite another.
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UAE foreign policy. So you can see where the claims came from.
 
Bit of a misperception that the employees of the intelligence service overseas are 'spies' as we often think of them. They're largely not - their role is to recruit and run spies, who are often locals, visitors or others, some doing it for money, some for ideology, or whatever. So while I have no idea about this case and the bloke may well be innocent, but there is something of a history of people working in academia being used to do intelligence work by both sides during the Cold War. Does mean that governments can categorically deny that someone belongs to them, because technically, they don't.

Another possibility could be that he's totally innocent but UAE are using this to make a point to the UK about other stuff which none of us would get to know about...as in, OK, we can't get the person we now know was spying on us for years whom you've pulled out, so we'll pick Joe Random Student instead. Murky world, and it does seem odd that they would provoke such a diplomatic incident over being a bit pissed off over who a student was talking to.

The 5 minute trial and no interpreter is a complete joke.
 
HoxtonMackem said:
If it was something political/to do with the military etc. then I'm surprised that 1. His university did not strongly discourage him from going over there and collecting the information 2. He never thought it could land him in hot water, considering he is at a PHD student at a top 5 UK university and surely the risks would raise internal alarm bells for anyone with common sense.

I reckon there may be more to the story. I'd not disregard the possibility that he could indeed could have been a spy.
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I just read he'd already written a thesis critical of the UAE rulers. He may be very intelligent but he's lacking a bit of common
 
HoxtonMackem said:
If it was something political/to do with the military etc. then I'm surprised that 1. His university did not strongly discourage him from going over there and collecting the information 2. He never thought it could land him in hot water, considering he is at a PHD student at a top 5 UK university and surely the risks would raise internal alarm bells for anyone with common sense.

I reckon there may be more to the story. I'd not disregard the possibility that he could indeed could have been a spy.
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He has family there. He spent years in the UAE before coming to Durham to study.
Sandboy said:
I just read he'd already written a thesis critical of the UAE rulers. He may be very intelligent but he's lacking a bit of common
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I suppose that would put him on their radar. And it's best to stay off their radar but like you say - if he had spent so much time there you'd think he'd know the lay of the land.
 
Aituk7 said:
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
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they tend to pose as mid ranked business executives. They don't pretend to be students or newspaper reporters as a rule. For obvious reasons
 
Does seem an odd one, on the one hand could just be a naive phd student asking questions and getting the backs of the authority up, but since he's doing these studies for his phd and resided there before you'd think he'd be aware of the tight restrictions and how touchy these Arab countries can be
On the other hand he could be a Real James Bond recruiting a network to gain sensitive information.

Gut feeling is the first option so hopefully he's released at some point soon regardless of sentence length with the benevolent :rolleyes: Authorities over there showing how nice they are really.

But they are a mad bunch over there, look at the shit that gaslight fella has landed in because of the arcane system all these countries in that region adhere to
 

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