‘My husband won’t survive 20 more years in a Dubai jail’
THE wife of a British businessman fears he will die in a Dubai prison after authorities extended his prison sentence by 20 years.
Heather Cornelius told of her despair over the plight of her 64-year-old husband and accused the British Government of failing to help to get him out. She said Ryan Cornelius would struggle to survive for another two decades in a Gulf prison.
Mr Cornelius should be free, having served a 10-year term for a $500million (£400million) fraud in 2009. But instead he was dragged back to court and ordered to serve a further 20 years unless he and his co-conspirators settled a $430million debt.
Mr Cornelius, a father-of-three who suffers from high blood pressure and a skin condition, would be 84 before he was next eligible for release.
Mrs Cornelius, 59, speaking for the first time, told The Daily Telegraph: “I never wanted to go public because you always think this nightmare is going to end. But when they sentenced him to another 20 years you feel you have to do something about this injustice. He has been given a death sentence. He won’t survive 20 years in there.”
Mrs Cornelius, whose home in London was repossessed, has pleaded with the Foreign Office to raise the case in the wake of the release of Matthew Hedges, who was jailed for life for spying. She said she had repeatedly asked for Foreign Office help but complains her pleas were ignored.
Cornelius and his fellow British inmate, Charles Ridley, were caught up in Dubai’s Law 37, which was introduced to extend prison sentences for convicts who do not return the proceeds of fraud against the government.
The fraud related to a $500million loan from the Dubai Islamic Bank. At the time, it sent shock waves through the expatriate communities in the Gulf.