{"id":2511,"date":"2018-11-25T22:05:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T22:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=2511"},"modified":"2018-11-25T22:05:17","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T22:05:17","slug":"matthew-hedges-british-student-is-jailed-for-life-on-spying-charges-in-u-a-e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2018\/11\/25\/matthew-hedges-british-student-is-jailed-for-life-on-spying-charges-in-u-a-e\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Hedges, British Student, Is Jailed for Life on Spying Charges in U.A.E."},"content":{"rendered":"
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LONDON \u2014 A court in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday sentenced a British academic to life in prison on spying charges, prompting a pledge from Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain that the issue would be raised \u201cat the highest level\u201d with the Emirati authorities.<\/p>\n

The severity of the verdict stunned British officials, who had been reluctant to discuss the case in public in the hope that the Emirati authorities would settle the matter quietly after a high-level intervention by the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt. British officials had also said that it was not their practice to comment on matters related to espionage.<\/p>\n

The academic, Matthew Hedges, a 31-year-old postgraduate student at Durham University in northeastern England, was arrested in Dubai on May 5 as he was planning to fly out. Colleagues said he had been pursuing research for a doctorate on\u00a0the effects of the so-called Arab Spring<\/a>\u00a0of 2011 on Emirati diplomacy.<\/p>\n

But the response suggested that the Emirati authorities wanted to show other researchers that some lines of inquiry, which have not been publicly defined, were considered off limits. The Emirates largely sidestepped\u00a0the pro-democracy protests that seized other Arab countries<\/a>\u00a0from North Africa to the Middle East in 2011.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow at Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston who is familiar with Mr. Hedges\u2019 work, said in a telephone interview that the British scholar had been working on the relationships among the Emirates\u2019 seven members after the Arab Spring.<\/p>\n

The events of that year, Mr. Coates Ulrichsen said, had left the Emirati authorities \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about potential threats, and \u201cthey have tried to really close down independent spaces.\u201d Mr. Hedges\u2019 work could, therefore, \u201chave been construed as crossing a red line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Members of Mr. Hedges\u2019 family said that his sentencing hearing had lasted about five minutes, with his lawyer absent.<\/p>\n

It was not clear whether the case was linked to the Emirates\u2019 role as a leading ally of Saudi Arabia in\u00a0the war against Houthi rebels in Yemen<\/a>. Hamad al-Shamsi, the Emirates\u2019 attorney general, has said that Mr. Hedges was accused of \u201cspying for a foreign country, jeopardizing the military, political and economic security of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Hunt, the British foreign secretary, traveled to Dubai recently for discussions about the case with senior officials including the crown prince, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is considered the de facto ruler of the Emirates.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s verdict is not what we expect from a friend and trusted partner of the United Kingdom and runs contrary to earlier assurances,\u201d Mr. Hunt said, adding that the sentencing would have unspecified repercussions for the relationship between Britain and the Emirates, \u201cwhich has to be built on trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Hunt also flew to Tehran this week to ask the Iranian authorities to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has British and Iranian nationality and who has been\u00a0held on espionage charges since 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The detentions on either side of the Persian Gulf seemed to illustrate the high tension between regional powers backing rival combatants in wars in Yemen and Syria.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the British Parliament, Mrs. May said: \u201cWe are deeply disappointed and concerned at today\u2019s verdict. We are raising it with the Emirati authorities at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain has a long history of close political, commercial and security ties with the United Arab Emirates, dating to the 19th century, when the seven sheikhdoms that now make up the United Arab Emirates were known as the Trucial States and became a British protectorate. The Emirates, which have been an independent state since 1971, remain a draw for British tourists and business interests.<\/p>\n

Crispin Blunt, a lawmaker from Mrs. May\u2019s Conservative party and a former head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, called the sentencing of Mr. Hedges \u201cwholly inconsistent with the behavior of a nation with whom we have a mutual defense accord.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In the past, there have been regular reports of Britons running afoul of judicial authorities in the conservative Emirates, usually over issues relating to personal morality and the consumption of alcohol.<\/p>\n

Daniela Tejada, Mr. Hedges\u2019 wife, was in court when the sentence was passed. She said the British authorities had made it clear to the Emirates\u2019 leaders that her husband had not been engaged in espionage.<\/p>\n

She said the British authorities had handled the case \u201cappallingly from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe British government must take a stand now for Matthew, one of their citizens,\u201d she said, according to news reports from Dubai.<\/p>\n

After the sentencing, she said: \u201cI don\u2019t know where they are taking him or what will happen now. Our nightmare has gotten even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 A court in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday sentenced a British academic to life in prison on spying charges, prompting a pledge from Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain that the issue would be raised \u201cat the highest level\u201d with the Emirati authorities. The severity of the verdict stunned British officials, who had been reluctant to discuss… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[157],"class_list":["post-2511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-ny-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2512,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions\/2512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}