“William was locked up with fellow British grandfather Albert Douglas who has also been detained over bounced cheques he didn’t write. Albert had been caring for William who also suffers dementia and was struggling in the prison when the two were taken from the cell and brought to a luxury two bedroom apartment within the prison, designed for VIP’s and Sheikhs who are jailed.”

Albert relayed that he was brought into the two bedroom apartment with a lounge room and television and asked “do you like your new quarters? There is a phone over there if you want to tell anyone about your new living conditions”. Albert thought he was en route to freedom and might even get a good sleep for once. He called his son Wolfgang, but had to hang up when several “diplomats and important people” entered the room.

Several men, dressed in the traditional kandura told Albert he had been brought here because they saw him as William’s carer. Despite his broken bones, Albert had been assisting William who was not able to take care of himself. “We are going to release William, sometimes we get it wrong”. They thanked Albert for his assistance and dashed his hopes of release when he was sent back to the “hell hole” he has been enduring for the past nine months. “Will you look at my case?” Albert pleaded, “What is your case?” Albert explained that the cheques he had been accused of writing had been proven by forensics to be unrelated to him. He explained that the court appointed experts in parallel civil cases had removed him from the proceedings as irrelevant which in essence, exonerated him from the criminal proceedings against him. Son Wolfgang said “my father’s been beaten to the point where his shoulder was dislocated, his fingers are broken and he has multiple surgeries scheduled. He’s done nothing wrong but has suffered grave human rights abuses. It’s astonishing that our government is happy to continue letting the UAE promote itself as a safe country to British nationals while at the same time, we have Baroness Whitaker, literally saying ‘The UAE is not safe for British nationals’.