The 74-year-old British man due to be publicly flogged in Saudi Arabia for possession of alcohol will be released within days, Philip Hammond has said.
The foreign secretary, on a visit to Saudi, announced that Karl Andree would be freed, despite reports of cooling diplomatic relations between the nation and the UK.
“This is a good outcome and I’m grateful to minister [Adel] Al-Jubeir and all other people who have been involved, especially His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, for ensuring that we now have a good outcome,” Hammond said.
Andree has been in jail since his arrest in August last year and had been sentenced to 350 lashes after bottles of homemade wine were reportedly found in his car.
Hammond said the case had caused concern in Britain but the “strength, depth and breadth” of UK relations with Saudi Arabia had led them to “achieve effective results”.
Following the announcement, Andree’s son, Simon, said: “It is great news if what the Saudis and the government is saying is true. I’m absolutely thrilled.
“Hopefully we’ll have him home next week.”
Simon Andree said he watched Hammond’s statement on television and he had not been told of his father’s release beforehand. “The Foreign Office called me this morning and told me Philip Hammond was in Saudi but they didn’t tell me anything else,” he added. “I’ve been watching the TV all day waiting for the news.”
Andree’s children had pressed David Cameron to intervene to save their father, an oil executive who had battled cancer, from the sentence.
They had said in a statement reported by the Sun: “Our father has given 25 years of his working life to Saudi Arabia, and this is how he is treated. Until his arrest, he has always been happy working there and felt safe.
“He is 74 years of age, has had cancer three times and his wife is dying in a home in the UK. He now needs medical care for his cancer and asthma, and there is no doubt in our mind that 350 lashes will kill him. We implore David Cameron to personally intervene and help get our father home. The Saudi government will only listen to him.”
A senior Downing Street source said Hammond’s visit to Saudi Arabia had been in his diary for some time and was unconnected to Saudi disquiet that the UK cancelled a contract to provide training to its prisons. Michael Gove, the justice secretary, gave no reason for the withdrawal, but there has been a campaign against the programme centring on Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights.
The Saudi ambassador to London, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, hit out at the prisons decision in an article for the Daily Telegraph on Monday.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, had last month used his party conference speech to highlight Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights, calling for the release of a Saudi protester, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who has been sentenced to death. Nimr was arrested in 2012 for reportedly being involved in Arab spring protests in Qatif, in the country’s eastern province.
Saudi Arabia has also been criticised for its treatment of the blogger Raif Badawi, whose flogging for insulting Islam is due to resume soon, according to his wife, despite him reportedly nearly dying from the first 50 lashes.
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