{"id":23000,"date":"2018-11-23T19:24:15","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T19:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23000"},"modified":"2018-11-23T19:24:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-23T19:24:15","slug":"uae-reviewing-clemency-request-in-briton-spy-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23000","title":{"rendered":"UAE reviewing clemency request in Briton spy case"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1409716\/middle-east\" readability=\"67\">\n<p>\nLONDON: The United Arab Emirates is reviewing a request for clemency from the family of a British researcher sentenced to life in prison on espionage charges this week, the country\u2019s ambassador to London said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\nMatthew Hedges\u2019s family \u201chave made a request for clemency and the government is studying that request,\u201d Ambassador Sulaiman Hamid Al-Mazroui said in a televised statement shown on BBC and Sky News in which he also defended the UAE\u2019s judiciary.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThe government does not dictate verdicts to the courts,\u201d Al-Mazroui said, dismissing criticism of the judicial process in the UAE from Hedges\u2019s family and insisting that genuine researchers were able to visit his country \u201cfreely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cMatthew Hedges was not convicted after a five-minute trial as some have reported. This was an extremely serious case. We live in a dangerous neighborhood and national security must be our top priority,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\nA UAE court on Wednesday sentenced 31-year-old Hedges, who was studying for a doctorate on the UAE\u2019s foreign and security policies at Durham University in northern England.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe had been arrested at Dubai airport on May 5.<\/p>\n<p>\nBritish Prime Minister Theresa May said earlier she was \u201cdeeply disappointed and concerned\u201d at the verdict in what is a key ally for Britain in the Gulf region.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe UAE foreign ministry also responded saying it hoped for \u201camicable solution to the Matthew Hedges case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nHedges\u2019s wife Daniela Tejada has criticized British officials for their handling of the case, saying they had refused to defend her husband for fear of upsetting Dubai.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON: The United Arab Emirates is reviewing a request for clemency from the family of a British researcher sentenced to life in prison on espionage charges this week, the country\u2019s ambassador to London said on Friday. Matthew Hedges\u2019s family \u201chave made a request for clemency and the government is studying that request,\u201d Ambassador Sulaiman Hamid&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}