“Until his arrest, he has always been happy working there and felt safe”, Andree’s three children, Hugh, 46, Kirsten, 45, and Simon, 33, said in a statement published Monday on the British daily The Sunday.
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But the MoJ announced that withdrawing JSi’s controversial bid for the Saudi Arabia work “would be detrimental to HMG’s (the Government’s) wider interests”.
“I ask that the government plead for his clemency and for him to be released”.
The Foreign Office website warns that penalties for possessing alcohol in Saudi Arabia are “severe”.
“He has done his time, I just feel that these lashings are unjustified for his age and for his current health condition”.
He said his father, who had worked for oil companies in the kingdom for a few 25 years, was in poor health, had suffered cancer three times, and also had asthma.
Mr Andree’s grandchildren are reportedly “worried” about their grandfather and asking if he is “out of jail yet”.
A spokesman from Britain’s Foreign Office explained that “Our embassy staff are continuing to assist Mr Andree, including regular visits to check on his welfare, and frequent contact with his lawyer and family”. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, last month used his keynote speech at his partys annual conference to call on the prime minister to secure the release of a Saudi protestor, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who has been condemned to execution. We have been providing consular assistance to Mr Andree and to his family since he was first arrested and we have raised the case repeatedly in recent weeks.
The Justice Secretary has closed down the controversial departmental commercial body which sold prison expertise to countries with dismal human rights records.
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“He’s an old frail man and I just fear that this lashing sentence is potentially a death sentence for him”, Simon said. Under Saudi law, he will be beheaded and then his body will be publicly displayed for days.
