Matthew Hedges describes details of torture in UAE jail: I was shackled and forced to stand still for 24 hours

Olivia Tobin5 December 2018

The British academic wrongly jailed for spying has disclosed more details about the torture he endured while being detained in the UAE including being shackled and forced to stand still for 24 hours.

Durham University PHD student Matthew Hedges told the BBC's Today programme that he had suicidal thoughts during the ordeal and dreamed that he had hung himself.

The 31-year-old said the toll on his mental health was "unbearable".

Earlier this month, Mr Hedges was granted a presidential pardon from a life term in jail on allegations of spying. He was detained by Emirati state security officers in May.

AFP/Getty Images

He returned to Britain and was reunited with his wife last week.

He said: “I was psychologically being tortured, especially with the cocktail of medication I was being given.

“I wasn’t able to manage my thoughts throughout the incarceration. That was the hardest thing for me to deal with, there was no way to deal with it.”

Matthew Hedges back in his wife's arms after returning to the UK after being freed from a jail in the UAE

Mr Hedges revealed at one point during his interrogation, he had cuffs attached to his feet.

He said: “I was shackled. When I had to go to the bathroom or use the shower, I would be escorted by four guards and I would wear ankle cuffs [and] whenever I was transported I was blindfolded and handcuffed.

“On one of the days I tried to tell to truth to inspectors, I had to stand all day in ankle cuffs.”

He added: “It was mentally exhausting, but physically your adrenaline takes over, but it’s how it made you feel mentally.”

At his lowest point, Mr Hedges said he had been suffering from panic attacks and even had suicidal thoughts.

AFP/Getty Images

Upon hearing he would be sentenced to life in prison, Mr Hedges said he was taken back to the interrogation room he had spent months in – and not to a prison as he expected.

He said the uncertainty of it, and not being able to communicate with his wife or anyone he knew, did not make sense.

He said he was in “total shock”, adding: “I wasn’t able to process that right in the court, it was too much as an explosion.

“I couldn’t say goodbye to [wife] Dani or anyone else, I was rushed out of the court and taken back to the same interrogation room. I was expecting to go back to jail. I was subsequently interrogated again the following day, so nothing was making sense.

“That weekend was the second or third time I had suicidal thoughts. I was expecting to go to jail to try and go through this, but again I was back in the interrogation room.

Mr Hedges and his wife
AFP/Getty Images

“I was having quite bad panic attacks and felt I was choking and I couldn’t breathe, and that night I dreamt I was hanging myself in the cell.

“That wasn’t good, it was very, very hard to deal with in that time period, because you’re by yourself, there was no one to speak to.”

Mr Hedges also claimed he was propositioned by those who were imprisoning him to become a double agent during this time.

He said: “They propositioned me to steal official documentation from the Foreign Office and I responded, I had a panic attack, I said ‘Listen, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t, I don’t work for the Foreign Office, I don’t know how you think this would be possible’.”

Mr Hedges, who appeared with his wife Daniela Tejada on the radio show, said he is taking time to relax now he back in the UK, but is working to formally clear his name in the new year.

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