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A British academic has been framed and charged with espionage MI6 accusing the country in the uae London The embassy distributed a 19-page dossier of personal and medical information in a smear campaign against him.
Matthew Hedges, 35, who spent six months in the country’s prisons as a doctoral student and was sentenced to life in prison before being released in November 2018, said the UAE even published his solitary confinement. Imprisonment photos.
He first learned of the dossier when he was contacted by a British newspaper, which received a copy from the London embassy.
The document was originally created and presented to the UN last June, when Mr Hedges testified to the Committee Against Torture about his ordeal.
Matthew Hedges, 35 (right), with his wife Dani shortly after his release in November 2018
Mr Hedges, from London, received a copy of a file with personal information on him, said to have been distributed by the UAE embassy in London
It claimed he was treated with “respect and dignity” at all times, telegraph reports.
The dossier emerged four years after he was detained, when Mr Hedges has been detailing the time he spent in solitary confinementincluding force-feeding, repeated interrogation and sleep deprivation on the floor of a windowless cell, where the lights were not turned off for months.
He was arrested at Dubai airport on May 5, 2018, as he was preparing to leave the country, having been in the UAE for a two-week research trip for his PhD in security.
Mr Hedges, accused of being an MI6 agent, detained and eventually found guilty of espionage, was formally pardoned following the long-running campaign of his wife Dani and the intervention of then foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt.
The academic has vehemently denied any involvement with any spy agency, and the British government has confirmed it has seen no evidence to support the country’s claims.
During his detention, Mr Hedges was held in a windowless cell and forced to sleep on the floor with the lights on for the first few months.
Mr Hedges also said he was forced to take a combination of medications prescribed by his doctor and was constantly monitored and interrogated repeatedly.
After being sentenced to life in prison, Mr Hedges told the Daily Mail he had tried to take his own life.
Four years after his torture, Mr Hedges testified to the UN Committee against Torture during a review of the UAE’s actions to prevent torture.
MailOnline understands the committee also received a dossier of information collated by the UAE disputing Mr Hedges’ claims about his imprisonment.
The document, which reportedly initially said it would not be published without the consent of the UN and Mr Hedges, has now been distributed to media outlets by the UAE embassy in London, apparently in an attempt to discredit his claims.
Mr Hedges told the Daily Mail the release of the document was an “act of brutality” by a country desperate to tarnish his reputation.
Late last year, he received a copy of the file that he said contained personal and medical information about him and his family.
Mr Hedges, filmed at Heathrow Airport after returning to the UK in 2018, told the Daily Mail he tried to take his own life while in solitary confinement
The 19 pages include photos of Mr Hedges taken in his cell, as well as a meeting room photo of him with his wife Dani, the only time he was allowed to see her during his six-month jail term.
There is also said to be a picture of Mr Hedges calling his family.
But Mr Hedges told MailOnline the images had been “carefully cleaned up and cropped” to present a false view of what was happening.
The country was trying to “show a whole set of behaviors over seven months in one screenshot,” he said.
He described any calls he made from the UAE as being made on a speakerphone while he was watched by multiple soldiers who limited what he could talk about.
“It doesn’t speak to the reality of the situation,” Mr Hedges said.
“I was surrounded by soldiers telling me what to say and what not to say, it was like a hostage negotiation.
“They want to make sure they can keep up with what I’m saying.”
At the same time, one of his meetings with his wife was closely monitored – a theme that ran throughout his incarceration.
Mr Hedges described cameras watching him and an armed guard stationed in his cell at all times.
“I was being watched all the time,” he told the Daily Mail.
“In the room, I was alone, but there was a soldier staring at me. I couldn’t talk to them.
“So turn on the camera, would it make a big difference if the camera was taking pictures of me?” I already had someone staring at me in the shower, watching me take a shower.
“It’s very aggressive.”
The UAE insists it has treated Mr Hedges well and denies any allegations of torture or ill-treatment.
Photographs of the academic with doctors and psychological reports on file were allegedly used to paint a picture of fair treatment in an attempt to discredit his account of his time in solitary confinement.
But Mr Hedges told a different story.
He told the Daily Mail he did visit the doctor “quite regularly” in order to be prescribed several medications.
However, he added: “It doesn’t mean that doctors have the independent ability to look after me.
“The soldiers told him what medicine to give me and how much.
“At one point, he was showing concern about the number of different meds they were giving me, so they yelled at him to get him out.
“They allowed me to go to the doctor but when he said something they didn’t like they just let him go. Then they changed all the amounts.
Mr Hedges has maintained since his release that soldiers forced him to take a “drug cocktail”, telling MailOnline he was given multiple types of antidepressants, sleeping pills and anti-sickness drugs.
During his six months behind bars, Mr Hedges has seen only one psychologist – and claims he was strictly instructed not to speak about his experiences in custody.
He told MailOnline that the psychology report on file, dated just days before his eventual release, made no mention of his declining mental health or suicide attempts.
“It contained outright lies,” Mr Hedges said. “This was written three days before I was released.
“It said I never attempted suicide or anything, but that’s why I was hospitalized.”
He believed the timing of the dossier submission was related to his ongoing international national security research, adding that the nation appeared to be “very disturbed by what I said after my release”.
A report into the archives by The Daily Telegraph corroborates what Mr Hedges described to The Daily Mail, who are understood to have received a copy.
The UAE embassy in London has been contacted for comment.
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call 116 123 completely anonymously and free of charge for help and support or visit samaritans.org.
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