The campaign to bring Romany Gypsy and British citizen Albert Douglas home from a “hellhole” prison cell in Dubai is gathering pace after hundreds of supporters rallied outside Parliament last weekend.

Businessman Albert Douglas, who is a grandfather of five, has been imprisoned for three years in Dubai after holding out against torture and refusing to confess to a crime he didn’t commit, say campaigners.

Albert Douglas was arrested and all his assets seized after his son’s separate flooring business in Dubai failed. He was charged and imprisoned for three years following torture and deprivation of food, water and sleep. Albert Douglas, who supporters say is ‘the nicest gentleman you ever meet’, was also deprived of crucial medication for his heart condition. His son Wolfgang Douglas had to flee Dubai after he became enmeshed in their “corrupt” justice system where a single bouncing cheque is an automatic three-year prison sentence. Albert Douglas at first stayed behind and tried to defend himself, because he had committed no crime, he says, but then had to flee and was caught by the United Arab Emirates authorities at the border.

Speaking to the Travellers’ Times, Wolfgang Douglas said the experience had opened his eyes to the “corrupt” legal system in Dubai and the wider United Arab Emirates.

“I was naïve,” says Wolfgang Douglas. “OK, I knew that Saudi Arabia was a dangerous place, but Dubai and the wider United Arab Emirates has good PR and I fell for it and my dad was doing well there. Dubai touts itself as a good place to do business, and as a glamourous tourist destination, and also as a hub for big sporting events such as boxing and football; it says it is the Las Vegas of the Middle East. But it doesn’t have a legal system. It has no human rights. They don’t exist. And me and my father opened our businesses there in good faith.”

Last weekend hundreds of campaigners rallied outside Parliament to demand that the UK Government act and bring Albert home. Prominent Romany Gypsy businessman Alfie Best was there and spoke at the rally.