More than 1,000 Britons held abroad last November without being sentenced
Sky News obtains figures that provide a snapshot of the detention of Britons overseas who were awaiting punishment on one day.
Wednesday 29 May 2019 17:57, UK
More than 1,000 British nationals were being detained in over 100 different countries last November despite not having a prison sentence, Sky News has learnt.
While the number includes people who were then released on bail or without charge, it also includes detainees like Andrew Neal, a former soldier, who have spent months and on occasion years in jail abroad without even being found guilty of an offence.
Mr Neal, a father of two, has been imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates since last October accused of selling drugs - an allegation he denies.
He appeared in court in Abu Dhabi this morning but his family says a police officer who was supposedly going to be giving evidence for the prosecution never showed up so the decorated Army veteran was given a new court date in July and sent back to his cell.
"We are feeling terrible," said Sue Neal, his mother, who has been tracking her son's plight from the family home just outside Nottingham.
"It is getting harder and harder to remain positive. We have to for Andrew's sake but we just cannot believe it."
Countries holding at least one Briton without being sentenced include those run by authoritarian regimes with poor human rights records and arbitrary systems of justice such as Egypt, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China and Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Figures released by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office under a Freedom of Information Act request show that 2,335 British nationals were known to be in detention overseas as of last November.
"This includes British nationals in immigration detention, in police custody, and those on remand awaiting trial, in addition to sentenced prisoners," the Foreign Office said.
Asked how many British nationals have been charged with a crime overseas but have yet to be found guilty or cleared, the department said it was aware of 1,012 individuals "who have yet to be sentenced".
The figure was subsequently described as a snapshot of the detention situation for British nationals recorded on a single day in November 2018.
It includes a range of scenarios from individuals who have been convicted of crimes and are awaiting sentence to those who were picked up but later had charges against them dropped as well as those languishing in jail without being formally prosecuted.
The department listed 108 countries that it said were holding Britons during this snapshot.
Among those in jail, pleading their innocence and not yet convicted of any crime, is Jagtar Singh Johal, 32, a Scottish Sikh who lives in Dumbarton.
He has spent nearly 19 months in an Indian prison accused of being connected to the murders of a number of Hindu nationalists. His brother says he is innocent and claims he was tortured in detention.
Of the total number of British detainees, 89% were men and 11% were women.
Crimes they were accused of or found guilty of ranged from assault and paedophilia to drugs and fraud.
The Foreign Office data reveals a total of 1,245 British nationals have been arrested in a foreign country since the start of this year.
For the whole of last year the number of British citizens arrested overseas was 5,359. This compared with 5,301 Britons arrested in 2017 and 5,568 arrested the previous year.
The number of arrests dropped to 4,890 British nationals in 2015.
The true figure of British nationals who fall foul of the law overseas could be a lot higher.
"It should also be noted that it is not mandatory for British nationals to report incidents to the FCO (or one of its diplomatic missions) so consequently the figures provided only cover incidents where cases have been reported to us," the Foreign Office said.
It added that its consular services are also used by some EU nationals as well as Commonwealth nationals in non-Commonwealth countries.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We do all we can to help Brits detained overseas, whatever stage of the judicial process they are in. We help around 5,500 people who are arrested or detained each year. Last year, 82 per cent of those to whom we provided consular services gave us a satisfaction rating of 8 out of 10 or higher.