This is the best summary I could come up with:
The UK Foreign Office has formally apologised to the academic Matthew Hedges for its handling of his arrest and subsequent torture by the United Arab Emirates.
In a letter signed by the Foreign Office’s top official, the permanent undersecretary Sir Philip Barton, it acknowledged the profound impact the arrest had on Hedges and the injustice he faced.
He said the Foreign Office urgently sought with UAE officials further consular visits with Hedges even though the case was not formally referred to the department’s human rights adviser as the guidelines suggest.
In a report published last month, the ombudsman found that at every meeting with a Foreign Office consular official, the UAE guards allegedly responsible for Hedges’ torture were present, making it impossible to be open about his mistreatment.
The Foreign Office has previously agreed to review its internal guidance on cases where there are allegations of or concerns about torture and mistreatment, and to provide in-person training for all consular staff on how to handle such detentions.
A false allegation which was refuted by all levels of the UK government at the time of my detention, including Alex Younger, the head of MI6, who said he ‘genuinely can’t understand how our Emirati partners came to the conclusions they came to’.
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