The United Arab Emirates on Monday pardoned a British academic jailed for life on spying charges, granting his family’s request for clemency minutes after showing a video of him purportedly confessing to being a member of Britain’s intelligence agency MI6.
The UAE president issued a pardon as part of the country’s National Day, effective immediately, according to a statement carried by state news agency WAM.
“The family and I welcome the news of the presidential pardon and cannot wait to have Matt back home,” Hedges’ wife, Daniela Tejada, told Reuters. Hedges, a 31-year-old doctoral student at Durham University, was sentenced last week in a move described as deeply disappointing by Prime Minister Theresa May. He was arrested on May 5 after a two-week research visit.
Source: Reuters UK