Wife of British man detained in Dubai calls on PM to act to secure his release
Heather Cornelius delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street on Monday, the day after her husband Ryan Cornelius’s 71st birthday.
The wife of a British citizen who has been imprisoned in Dubai for 17 years has urged Sir Keir Starmer to do more to secure his release.
Heather Cornelius delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street on Monday, the day after her husband Ryan Cornelius’s 71st birthday, requesting a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss his case.
Mr Cornelius was detained for 10 years in 2008 as part of a bank fraud case, with his detention extended by 20 years in 2018.
A UN working group has found he is subject to arbitrary imprisonment.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Mrs Cornelius said she was “disappointed” with the Government’s efforts to secure her husband’s release, adding she was “losing hope”.
She said: “I feel very angry sometimes, and I feel really, really let down by every kind of justice and every kind of right that there is in this world.
“And I feel dreadful for Ryan. I find it hard enough to exist, and I’m free. He has been in jail for 17 years.
“He’s 71, 71 is not the end of your life or anything, but he has lost all that time with his family.
“We just need some time now together so that he can at least try to get to know his children, they’re grown up, but to have some previous time and I cannot understand why they wouldn’t let him have some time with his family. It’s cruel.”
Mr Cornelius’s brother-in-law, Chris Pagett, urged Sir Keir to “make it clear to the UAE that this is a matter of consequence”, saying his jailers had so far had “very solid, sound reasons for concluding that this was a matter of indifference to the UK”.
He said: “Sir Keir has the stature and the authority, however he chooses to exercise it, to make it clear that this is a matter of consequence.”
He also criticised the Foreign Office, accusing Foreign Secretary David Lammy of failing to respond to a letter from 40 MPs urging him to impose sanctions on those responsible for Mr Cornelius’s imprisonment.
Labour MP Tim Roca, who accompanied Mrs Cornelius and Mr Pagett to Downing Street, said it was “a real shame that successive governments have failed to secure Ryan’s release and his wife Heather has to face the reality that she may never see her husband again”.
Human rights campaigner Sir Bill Browder also called for sanctions, saying: “This is a shocking and prolonged miscarriage of justice. Under Dubai’s own laws, Ryan should have been released years ago.
“His continued imprisonment is not just unlawful, it is morally indefensible. The British Government must do more than express concern – it must act.”
In December 2024, Sir Keir told MPs that Mr Cornelius’s case had been raised with the UAE “a number of times”, adding that he had personally “raised human rights issues”.
He added: “We’ll continue to press for the outcome that I know he and his family desperately want.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson pointed to a statement by Middle East minister Hamish Falconer earlier this year, in which he said the Government took the UN’s opinion on Mr Cornelius’s arbitrary detention “seriously” and said the Government “will continue to highlight their concerns in discussions with UAE authorities”.
He added: “The FCDO are providing Mr Cornelius with consular assistance, and we take any reports of human rights violations, including coercion and poor prison conditions very seriously and, with the consent of Mr Cornelius, will raise any concerns with local authorities.”
