UAE spy row: UK citizen pardoned with “immediate effect”

The British academic Matthew Hedges handed a life sentence in the United Arab Emirates for spying has been pardoned by the country’s president.

The announcement was made at a press conference in Abu Dhabi.

The move follows lobbying over the weekend by the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who spoke to the UAE’s foreign minister on Sunday. A British Foreign Office spokesman described those talks as “constructive”.

There had been speculation the UAE could release Hedges on its national day, 2 December.

The Hedges family had pleaded for clemency last week and hoped Hedges would be included in the releases. He was detained at Dubai airport on 5 May and has been kept in solitary confinement for the bulk of the past six months.

His wife, Daniela Tejada, has complained the Foreign Office did little to secure his release until she mounted a public campaign to highlight the treatment of her husband by one of the UK’s closest Gulf allies. She had launched an online petition to secure his release, and a growing number of universities have been reviewing their links with the UAE.

UK Foreign secretary had marked the verdict as deeply shocking and disappointing and assured that UK government will do everything possible to support Hedges.

Abdulla Al Naqbi, head of the ministry's Department of Legal Affairs had earlier said: "families also have the right to appeal for presidential clemency on behalf of convicted relatives".

Also in a statement, Al Naqbi marked that "compelling and powerful evidence was presented in court" and that this included Hedges' own confession.

Hedges was offered, and accepted, the services of a court-appointed lawyer and was also provided with translators, he said.

Nikita Bernardi, a spokeswoman for the Hedges family had contradicted Al Naqbi’s statement as she said that Hedges had been sentenced to "life in prison following a five-minute hearing in which he had no legal representation."