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Families of UK prisoners abroad urge ministers to keep promises to help

Families of UK prisoners abroad urge ministers to keep promises to help

The Guardian16-07-2025
Families and lawyers of prominent British prisoners detained abroad have called for the government to deliver on promises to help secure their release and appoint a special envoy.
Last week, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said he hoped to appoint a special envoy for British nationals arbitrarily detained overseas by the end of the year, after vowing to do so in November 2024 and as part of a Labour manifesto pledge.
But families have criticised a lack of government action to secure the release of British nationals while they wait for an envoy to be appointed and raised concerns that some cases could be left out of their purview.
Heather Cornelius, the wife of Ryan Cornelius, a property developer arrested in Dubai 17 years ago, said: 'I have always tried to keep faith in the British government, but they have given us no reason to.'
As an Irish passport holder, Cornelius took her husband's case to Dublin where they received support they had not seen from the UK government, despite 40 cross-party MPs calling for sanctions on those holding him and the UN calling for his immediate release.
Last week, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of calling on the UAE to release him and on the UK to take necessary action.
'It's incredible what they've achieved in two months,' said Cornelius. 'I'm just blown away and Ryan cannot believe what has happened, it's just given him so much hope.'
Every year, the foreign office deals with 28,000 cases where an individual requires consular assistance, however it does not disclose the number of arbitrarily detained Britons – such as Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Jimmy Lai, Mehran Raoof, Jagtar Singh Johal.
On Wednesday, the UK prime minister Keir Starmer said they are working 'at pace' to set up the special envoy role – which would be loosely modelled on the US role of presidential envoy for hostage affairs – in response to a question from Tim Roca, the vice chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for arbitrary detention and hostage affairs.
'We do routinely raise these cases with international counterparts,' Starmer said. 'We're deeply committed to getting them home and united with their loved ones.'
Alicia Kearns MP, who set up the all-party parliamentary group, said little progress has been made at effective reform. She called on the government to learn from past failings and consult former detainees, as well as the families of those currently detained.
'While the government commitment to appoint a special envoy to lead on the issue is welcome, this risks being meaningless and only an extension of inconsistent policy which plays into the hands of regimes deploying a hostage diplomacy tactic, unless the individual appointed is of significant stature, with the experience, remit and resources to negotiate for British citizens' release and support families,' said Kearns.
As well as continued calls for the envoy appointment and on the government to prioritise cases, relatives and lawyers of some of those arbitrarily detained abroad have told the Guardian of the difficulties they have faced in getting help.
Haydee Dijkstal, counsel for Ahmed al-Doush, a British national convicted in Saudi Arabia and sentenced to 10 years in jail over social media posts – now reduced to 8 – said the family continues to plead for the government to act with urgency.
'It is critical that the UK government demand full clarity and transparency about the treatment and proceedings against a British national, and take a firm and clear position that Ahmed is being arbitrarily detained,' said Dijkstal.Relatives and representatives involved with high-profile cases who met Middle East minister Hamish Falconer in recent weeks to discuss the special envoy appointment, described the meeting as 'awful' as concerns were raised over promises made by the foreign secretary they feared would not be met.
'I saw no evidence that any thought had been given to design,' said Chris Pagett, the brother-in-law of Ryan Cornelius and a former civil servant, who attended the meeting. 'I have very little hope, unless a lot changes.'
Kingsley Kanu, the brother of Nnamdi Kanu, a British national being held in Nigeria after falling victim to extraordinary rendition, has had no communication with the UK government, and said his brother, who is currently on trial, has not had a consular visit in two months.
'I was thinking the government of Keir Starmer would have done better,' said Kanu. 'All of them have ignored the issue of my brother.'
In May, his brother, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, wrote to the British high commissioner to Nigeria asking for his case to be publicly acknowledged as unlawful.
The letter said: 'Silence and procedure equivocation in the face of criminal acts carried out against a British citizen abroad do not represent diplomatic prudence; they represent dereliction of duty.'
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There's a royal reason Trump won't escape Jeffrey Epstein fallout on trip to his Scotland golf courses — Prince Andrew
There's a royal reason Trump won't escape Jeffrey Epstein fallout on trip to his Scotland golf courses — Prince Andrew

The Independent

time24 minutes ago

  • The Independent

There's a royal reason Trump won't escape Jeffrey Epstein fallout on trip to his Scotland golf courses — Prince Andrew

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US President Donald Trump arrives in Scotland
US President Donald Trump arrives in Scotland

The Independent

time24 minutes ago

  • The Independent

US President Donald Trump arrives in Scotland

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It's easy to sneer at Corbyn after farcical launch of his new party but here's why Starmer should be very, very afraid
It's easy to sneer at Corbyn after farcical launch of his new party but here's why Starmer should be very, very afraid

The Sun

time25 minutes ago

  • The Sun

It's easy to sneer at Corbyn after farcical launch of his new party but here's why Starmer should be very, very afraid

IT is easy to sneer at ­Jeremy Corbyn and his new political party. As Labour leader Corbyn took his former comrades to their biggest defeat since 1935, winning just 203 seats. 2 2 As leader of a fringe party he will have zero chance of becoming Prime Minister. We can all be thankful for that. The launch of the party was itself farcical, with Corbyn already apparently falling out with his co-founder, former Labour MP Zarah Sultana. It appears to be called 'Your Party', and even has a website by that name, yet within hours of the launch Sultana tweeted in protest 'it's not called that!' and insisted that a name will be chosen at the putative party's first conference. When challenged on the row, Corbyn announced that Sultana was 'in Coventry' (where her constituency is), failing to spot the euphemism. All very Corbyn-like. If I were Keir Starmer, however, I would be taking the launch of the new party very seriously indeed. While Your Party, or whatever it is called, has no chance of forming a government, it has every chance of contributing to the downfall of the current one. Just look how Reform UK ate into the Conservative Party vote in last year's General Election, helping reduce it to a rump of just 120 seats. Corbyn has every chance of inflicting as much damage on Labour as Reform UK did on the Tories. Add to Labour's misery Corbyn and Sultana haven't announced much in the way of policy yet — you wouldn't expect them to have done — but their declaration on Thursday included two positions which absolutely hit the right buttons for Labour's increasingly disenchanted band of supporters on the Left. First, they want to end arms sales to Israel, and second, they propose to take all utility companies into public ownership. Inside UK's 1st Reform pub with £2 pints, boozers drinking 'Remainer tears' & even Corbyn's allowed in, on one condition As for the first, just look how Labour suffered at the hands of independent pro-Palestinian candidates in the last election, with Jonathan Ashworth losing his supposedly safe seat in Leicester and Wes Streeting, now Health Secretary, scraping home by just 528 votes in Ilford North. Shabana Mahmood, now Justice Secretary, saw her 28,000 majority shrink to just 3,421 in the face of a challenge from a pro-Palestine candidate — and that was against the backdrop of a national Labour landslide. A nationally organised ­General Election campaign which focuses on Gaza — even one organised by Corbyn — can surely only add to Labour's misery on this front. 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