Brit student chained and drugged in UAE says UK close to ‘giving green light’ to torture

A British student who was chained and drugged after being accused of spying says the government is on the verge of giving the “green light” to torture.

Matthew Hedges spent seven months in a detention centre in the United Arab Emirates after being arrested during a research trip in 2018.

During his ordeal, he was mercilessly interrogated, tried to take his own life and heard other inmates being raped.

Matthew was forced to take a toxic mixture of medication which left him sick and disorientated, and was chained in a windowless room surrounded by lights and cameras, unable to sleep for days.

Tormented by the sound of other prisoners screaming in pain, the Durham University student confessed to being an MI5 officer – despite it not being true.

The horrific ordeal left him suicidal and sparked a huge international outcry before he was eventually released.

Since his release he has undergone extensive treatment for PTSD, he told Mirror Online.

Matthew, now 33, is desperate for the government to abandon a controversial bill which he fears will prevent victims like himself from getting justice.

The Overseas Operations Bill, which will be discussed by MPs next week, includes a “presumption against prosecution” if allegations are not made within five years.

“Five years is just ridiculous,” Matthew said.

“It can take years to psychologically recover from being tortured.

“There’s a real danger that the bill gives a green light and offers protection for the perpetrators to escape justice.

“It signals that British soldiers are above the law.”

The government says the bill will protect troops from “vexatious” prosecutions – and torture claims can still proceed in exceptional circumstances.

Currently there is no time limit on prosecutions for war crimes.

Matthew described his own experience as a “nightmarish scenario”.

He said he still suffers nightmares, and longs to see the those behind his harrowing ordeal brought to justice.

He was arrested as he tried to leave Dubai in May 2018 after a two-week research trip, and taken to what he describes as a “safe house”.

He said: “I could hear people screaming and they threatened to physically torture me. It was a scary nightmarish scenario.

“Other people were being raped and people were being physically tortured.”

After seven weeks of sleep deprivation, and being forced to take a combination of ADHD medication and anti-depressants, he finally gave the confession that was used against him in court.

“I believed I had to tell them what they wanted to hear,” Matthew told Mirror Online.

“I once tried to go back on what I’d said, and they said at that point that they were going to take me overseas and they’d put me in an underground cell and I’d never see daylight again.”

In November 2018 he was sentenced to life in prison.

“After five or six months the medication was making me physically sick,” he said.

“I tried to commit suicide and they took me to hospital, where they took me off the medication.

“For my first court appearance I hadn’t slept for three or four days, I had to be held up.”

His imprisonment was heavily criticised after it became public, and eventually UAE’s government responded by handing him a pardon in November 2018.

When he was told he was being freed, he did not trust what he was told.

“They just walked into the room and told me I was being freed, but I thought it was just a ruse,” he said.

“You don’t know if they’re just trying to keep you calm, on some occasions they would get you a cup of tea and then they’d put a bag over your head.

“If you’re going to slaughter an animal, if it’s manic and it’s stressed it’s very hard. They applied the same psychological techniques.

“Until I was on the plane, I didn’t believe I was going home.”

He added: “Even to this day I still don’t know what the charges were against me.”

“I’m not able to get justice for what they put me through.”

He has hit out against the government plans.

“The Mau Mau cases are still being taken to court after 50 years,” he said, referring to Kenyans tortured by British colonial forces in the 1950s.

“This isn’t a path that the UK should be going down. It’s not anti-British armed forces to be against this bill.”

Defending the proposed legislation, Tory defence minister Johnny Mercer said the UK “unreservedly” condemns torture and said safeguards “are as strong as ever”.

He continued: “What we are trying to do is legislate to protect our people from the kind of vexacious claims we’ve seen over the last 10 or 15 years that have totally destroyed the lives of some of our finest people.

“We are in no way obstructing justice and our ability to hold to account our people who do break the law.”

Steve Crawshaw, director of policy and advocacy at campaign group Freedom from Torture said: “Attacks on human rights and international law have become the hallmarks of this government.

” The idea that there can be a sell-by date for prosecution of torture and war crimes after just five years is truly extraordinary.

“The government’s reputation as a defender of the rule of law is already on shaky ground. This Bill further questions its commitment to upholding international agreements and flies in the face of its dedication to human rights.

“The UK has historically led the way in opposing torture. If the UK introduces this law now, what’s to stop other states from doing the same?”

Source: The Mirror