Ahmad Zeidan: UAE drugs convict in new appeal to government

Ahmad Zeidan claims he was tortured into signing a confession in Arabic, a language he does not understand

A British man jailed in the United Arab Emirates after allegedly being tortured into admitting drugs charges has made a fresh plea for government help.

Ahmad Zeidan from Reading was sentenced to nine years after he was arrested when cocaine worth about £3 was found in the car he was travelling in.

The 22-year-old says he was forced to sign a confession after being tortured for more than a week.

He has twice appealed for government intervention but to no avail.

Beaten and threatened

Zeidan was studying at the Emirates Aviation College in Dubai when he was arrested in December 2013 along with several other young men when 0.04g of cocaine, with a street value of about £3, was found in a car he was a travelling in.

He maintains the drugs were not his.

The student was sentenced last summer, despite all of his co-defendants either being pardoned or acquitted.

Both he and his family have twice unsuccessfully requested the government formally petition for him to be released under UAE state prisoner pardons.

Zeidan insists he was coerced into signing a confession in Arabic - which he does not understand - after he was beaten and threatened.

He has now pleaded with ministers to support his request to be freed in a pardon scheduled for next month.

In a direct plea to the British government, he said: "I'm the only British national serving time in Sharjah, and after an unfair trial.

"I'm the only person who hasn't been pardoned now. It's been almost two years now. Get me out of what I'm going through."

He claims to have suffered seizures and experienced flashbacks during his two years in jail following his arrest.

'Nightmarish ordeal'

"I'm not coping," he said. "I feel like I am going to self-implode. I'm just holding on to a thin line of something and I feel it's going to run out very soon.

"I try to create my own bubble to escape. The only thing I have are these 15-minute phone calls that I have to interact with the normal world."

Campaigners at legal charity Reprieve have taken up Zeidan's cause.

Maya Foa, from the organisation, said he had suffered a "staggering miscarriage of justice" and was undergoing a "nightmarish ordeal".

"His brutal torture and the use of a bogus 'confession' are more than enough reason for the British government to request his release," she said.

"It is deeply disappointing that ministers have not yet done this."

The Foreign Office said any comment on a continuing legal process would be "inappropriate" but confirmed it had been in regular contact with Zeidan and his family since his arrest to "provide assistance".

Police in the UAE have previously denied claims of torture.