Latest news with #RyanCornelius
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Families of UK prisoners abroad urge ministers to keep promises to help
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 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.'
The Independent
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Demands grow for sanctions over British man detained in Dubai for 17 years
The Foreign Secretary has faced urgent calls to sanction those responsible for the detention of a British man in Dubai for the past 17 years. MPs and peers have urged David Lammy to publicly call for the release of Ryan Cornelius, now 71, who was detained for 10 years in 2008 as part of a bank fraud case. The detention was then extended by 20 years in 2018. A group of 15 parliamentarians, led by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, said the case of Ryan Cornelius was a 'flagrant example of arbitrary detention and abuse of power'. A UN working group has found he is subject to arbitrary detention and last week the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning his detention in 'inhumane conditions' and calling for his 'immediate and unconditional release'. After the European Parliament resolution, Sir Iain and his colleagues asked Mr Lammy to 'immediately clarify the Government 's position on Mr Cornelius's case and confirm what steps you will now take to press for his release'. Specifically, they asked whether the Government would make 'strong representations to the UAE on his behalf', publicly call for his release and impose 'targeted' sanctions on those responsible for his detention. They said: 'The UK has a moral and legal duty to act, as well as a diplomatic responsibility to defend its citizens abroad from such mistreatment. 'We urge the Government to act with the utmost urgency to secure his release.' Sir Iain said it was 'vital' for the Government to take 'decisive action' to secure Mr Cornelius's release. Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer has previously said the Government would 'continue to highlight their concerns' in talks with the UAE and was providing Mr Cornelius with consular assistance, while it took reports of human rights violations 'very seriously'. But the UK's response to his detention has been criticised by Mr Cornelius's wife Heather and brother-in-law Chris Pagett. They said: 'For more than 17 years, we have had nothing but defensive waffle from the British Foreign Office. 'The European Parliament has made a strong and direct call to the UAE for Ryan's release within months of our taking his case to them. 'The contrast is shameful. The British people deserve better.' It is understood that the Government is supporting Mr Cornelius's application for clemency, and the issue was raised by the Foreign Secretary during a trip to the UAE in December last year.
The Independent
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
MPs call for sanctions over British man detained in Dubai for 17 years
MPs and peers have urged the Foreign Secretary to sanction those responsible for the detention of a British man in Dubai for the past 17 years. The group of 15 parliamentarians, led by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, said the case of Ryan Cornelius was a 'flagrant example of arbitrary detention and abuse of power' as they asked David Lammy to publicly call for his release. Mr Cornelius, now 71, was detained for 10 years in 2008 as part of a bank fraud case, and the detention was extended by 20 years in 2018. A UN working group has found he is subject to arbitrary detention and last week the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning his detention in 'inhumane conditions' and calling for his 'immediate and unconditional release'. After the European Parliament resolution, Sir Iain and his colleagues asked Mr Lammy to 'immediately clarify the Government's position on Mr Cornelius's case and confirm what steps you will now take to press for his release'. Specifically, they asked whether the Government would make 'strong representations to the UAE on his behalf', publicly call for his release and impose 'targeted' sanctions on those responsible for his detention. They said: 'The UK has a moral and legal duty to act, as well as a diplomatic responsibility to defend its citizens abroad from such mistreatment. 'We urge the Government to act with the utmost urgency to secure his release.' Sir Iain said it was 'vital' for the Government to take 'decisive action' to secure Mr Cornelius's release. Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer has previously said the Government would 'continue to highlight their concerns' in talks with the UAE and was providing Mr Cornelius with consular assistance, while it took reports of human rights violations 'very seriously'. But the UK's response to his detention has been criticised by Mr Cornelius's wife Heather and brother-in-law Chris Pagett. They said: 'For more than 17 years, we have had nothing but defensive waffle from the British Foreign Office. 'The European Parliament has made a strong and direct call to the UAE for Ryan's release within months of our taking his case to them. 'The contrast is shameful. The British people deserve better.' It is understood that the Government is supporting Mr Cornelius's application for clemency, and the issue was raised by the Foreign Secretary during a trip to the UAE in December last year.
Telegraph
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
EU doing more than UK to help Briton detained in Dubai, says family
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.
The Independent
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Who are the Brits still imprisoned in Dubai after teenager Marcus Fakana released?
At least three Britons remain detained in Dubai despite the royal family issuing a pardon to the 18-year-old Marcus Fakana. The Tottenham-born teenager recently returned to the UK after being sentenced to a year in a Dubai prison for having sex with a 17-year-old. The campaign group Detained in Dubai, which helped secure the Brits' release, say he is now 'recovering' after months in the notorious Al-Awir Central prison, which another British prisoner recently reported to be 'intolerably overcrowded'. Mr Fakana's case raised questions about the dangers of tourism in the Gulf state as it has become a favourite for Britons, who make up more than seven per cent of Dubai's annual visitors, behind only India, Oman and Saudi Arabia. But his release does little to allay fears that it remains a dangerous place to be arrested. British tourists have been imprisoned, shackled and tortured in Dubai over the past decade for petty crimes, including using a counterfeit £20 note and touching another man's hip in a bar, as well as false charges. Below, The Independent looks at a few of the Brits still held in Dubai and the wider United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as some previous instances of wrongful detention. Ryan Cornelius The 71-year-old father-of-three has spent the last 17 years in Al-Awir on trumped-up charges of fraud. The UAE says he illegally obtained a £370m loan from the government-affiliated Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) by bribing staff members, but the United Nations says the charge of fraud is unjust, and has called for his immediate release. Mr Cornelius accuses the DIB, which is chaired by a senior, non-royal government official, of being his 'effective jailers'. In January, The Independent revealed that Mr Cornelius wrote directly to the Foreign Office urging them to protect him against 'aggressive' prison officials after they tried to force him to sign a document claiming his human rights were being upheld. In his letter to the Foreign Office, he added that he had been denied access to fresh air and basic facilities. He is already suffering from the cumulative health effects of tuberculosis, Covid and high blood pressure, which have been partially brought on by poor prison conditions. Mr Cornelius' family have urged the Foreign Office to do more to secure his release. Charles Ridley Comparatively less is known about Mr Ridley, the business partner of Mr Cornelius. He, too, was sentenced on charges of fraud following his arrest in 2008. In a submission to the High Court in 2022, his lawyers said he was 'close to destitute' and facing 'harsh and intolerable' conditions in Al-Awir. He accused the DIB of breaching a settlement to pay back the loan after they ensured the extension of his sentence in 2018 by 20 years. Albert Douglas British grandfather Albert Douglas has been detained in Dubai since February 2021 on charges concerning two bounced cheques, which forensic tests suggest he did not write. The cheques relate to a business owned by his son, Wolfgang Douglas, which failed in 2019. Mr Douglas is yet to be convicted of any crime. His son claims his father is being held in prison on trumped-up charges. There is no release date and he has not officially been sentenced. He claims that Albert is being tortured behind bars, and was strangled in 2023 with a phone cord by another inmate at Al Barsha prison. In October 2024, it was reported that UAE authorities had added an additional five years to Mr Douglas' time in custody. Wolfgang has spent £1.4 million trying to get his father freed. He told Detained in Dubai: 'My father loved Dubai, that is, until he was falsely arrested, beaten and tortured by prison guards and convicted of writing a cheque he never wrote.' Matthew Hedges The former PhD student was arrested in May 2018 after visiting the UAE for a research trip into aspects of the country's foreign and domestic security strategy. Mr Hedges was then accused of working for MI6 and "spying for or on behalf of" the UK government, a charge then head of the secret service Sir Alex Younger, personally denied. For nearly eight months after, the academic says he was interrogated for up to 15 hours a day, force fed a cocktail of medication, kept in a windowless room without a bed and denied regular access to the British embassy and his lawyers. He suffered panic attacks and was placed under intense psychological pressure, before being sentenced to life imprisonment. It was only after intense, although belated lobbying from the UK government, international outcry and a forced confession that Mr Hedges was pardoned and released on 26 November 2018, the country's National Day. The UAE called it 'gracious clemency'. Mr Hedges said his ordeal left him with post traumatic stress disorder and insomnia. He still has to take drugs seven years later as a result of being force fed medication. Billy Barclay Edinburgh-native Billy Barclay spent three days in a Dubai jail in 2018 while his mother was dying in hospital after he was caught using a £20 counterfeit note at a currency exchange. Jamie Harron Scot Jamie Harron spent three months in prison in 2017 after being accused of public indecency for touching another man's hip at a bar. The 27-year-old electrician claimed he had simply been trying to avoid spilling his drink when he touched the man.
