British Ph.D. student in U.A.E. was found guilty of spying after what observers say was an unfair trial in which he was denied due process. Some academics urge Western universities — including NYU — to reconsider role of campuses in the Emirates.
A Ph.D. student at Britain’s Durham University, who had been sentenced to life in prison by a United Arab Emirates court after being found guilty of spying for the U.K., was pardoned Monday.
Matthew Hedges has denied the spying charges and said that he was conducting academic research. The Guardian reported that the pardon was announced at a press conference Monday, which followed talks over the weekend between the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and U.A.E. officials. Press reports indicated Hedges would be released soon. Al Jazeera quoted Anwar Gargash, the U.A.E. minister of state for foreign affairs, as saying, “His Highness the president’s gracious clemency in the customary National Day pardons allows us to return our focus to the underlying fundamental strength of the U.A.E./U.K. bi-lateral relationship and its importance to the international community. It was always a U.A.E. hope that this matter would be resolved through the common channels of our longstanding partnership. This was a straightforward matter that became unnecessarily complex despite the U.A.E.’s best efforts.”
The Hedges case led many academic groups to demand his release, and also to question the ties of Western universities to the U.A.E. Whether those questions will continue to be raised after the pardon is not yet clear.
The Middle East Studies Association said in a letter about Hedges’s case prior to the pardon that he was arrested in May at the Dubai airport at the end of a two-week research trip and that his dissertation focuses on “civil-military relations in the U.A.E. and examines how concepts of regime security have evolved since 2011,” the year of the Arab Spring. MESA’s board recently issued a statement citing the prosecution of Hedges as evidence of an “intensification of threats” against researchers and resident scholars in the U.A.E.
Hedges’s family reported that he was sentenced after a five-minute hearing in which he was not represented by a lawyer, according to CNN. The family also said that Hedges was forced to sign a confession in Arabic, a language he does not read or speak.
Human Rights Watch has previously reported that Hedges was detained for months before being formally charged or granted access to lawyers, denying his due process rights. The human rights group also reported that Hedges was held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods.
Prior to the pardon, Britain’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, described Hedges’s sentence as “extremely worrying.”
“We have seen no evidence to back up charges against him,” Hunt said on Twitter. “U.A.E. claim to be friend & ally of the U.K. so there will be serious diplomatic consequences. Unacceptable.”
Credit: Inside higher red
