Academic ‘mentally tortured’ in UAE prison

A British academic who was accused of spying and held in solitary confinement in the United Arab Emirates for nearly six months has told how his ordeal at the hands of interrogators felt like psychological “torture”.

Matthew Hedges was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Gulf state after being accused of working for MI6 before being pardoned by the nation’s president days later.

Now back home in the UK with wife Daniela Tejada, the Durham University PHD student has spoken about his experience, claiming “aggressive” interrogators left him “so scared and on edge”. “I was never physically tortured, but it was psychological and it felt like torture,” he told a national newspaper.

Mr Hedges claimed he was questioned for up to 15 hours a day and was forced to wear ankle cuffs.

He was allegedly offered a favourable bargain if he turned double agent and stole documents from the Foreign Office. “They started getting more and more aggressive and I’d have panic attacks,” Mr Hedges said.