A year after his unjust detainment in the UAE, Matthew Hedges’ fight for academic freedom is not over

Public pressure helped to secure the PhD student's release last year. Who’s to say it can’t be used to help others in need?

One year ago, Matthew Hedges, a 31-year old Durham University PhD student from Exeter, was wrongfully imprisoned in the UAE. Matthew was in the country for two weeks to research the impact of the Arab spring on the UAE’s foreign policy.

On his way home to the UK, he was detained at Dubai airport. He was then subjected to around six months of inhumane treatment and solitary confinement which Matthew described as “psychological torture”. In November 2018, the UAE authorities sentenced Matthew to life imprisonment on “spying” charges after a five-minute hearing during which his lawyer was not present.

While Matthew was in prison, his wife, Daniela Tejada, campaigned for his freedom from back home in the UK. Her appearances all over the news raised awareness of this injustice and sparked public outrage resulting in foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt publicly demanding Matthew’s release.

After six long months in prison, the UAE pardoned Matthew and released him. Daniela’s strength, resilience and tireless campaigning is one of the main reasons Matthew is free and reunited with her in the UK.

I had the privilege of meeting Daniela at a parliament event in October 2018. The event was for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, another innocent British citizen wrongfully imprisoned overseas, this time in Iran. Nazanin is still in prison today and her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has been campaigning tirelessly to free his wife.

If we allow this to happen to one of us, we allow this to happen to all of us – which is why I campaign to free wrongfully imprisoned people in these situations.

Matthew’s fight isn’t over. Speaking to me, he said: “The public support has been amazing but to be honest, whilst I was in detention I didn’t know the amount of support that I had.

“It was quite overwhelming to know how many people had spent time thinking about my situation, writing letters and statements to try and push for my release – I am really grateful for all that. My main priority is to try and make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“There is a quite surprising lack of understanding about what being an academic entails and there are very few formal protections available for academics and this needs to change.”

Matthew and Daniela are now campaigning for academic freedom. They don’t want this injustice to happen to anyone else. They know this is going to be a tough fight and they’re going to need backup. They’re going to need us, and we can do more to help than we realise.

We can write to our MPs urging the government to better protect British nationals abroad, put people before profit and put the safety of our citizens before trade deals with countries like the UAE.

Protocols must be in place to ensure the safety of university students and employees conducting research overseas, and we can also write to them asking them to make this happen.

We can stand in solidarity with Matthew and Daniela. Let this innocent couple know that in spite of the atrocities that were carried out, there is a world of care out there and we stand by their side, that we are here to help.

Speaking to me about the impact of widespread support, Daniela said she was “glad” that she “made the decision to go public with what was happening to Matt”.

“The support we gained during that time not only helped ensure Matt’s freedom but it actually provided myself and our families with a source of strength.

“We garnered an unprecedented amount of support especially from other academics around the world and nearly 700 of them signed an open letter asking the UAE to release one of their own.

“I also met Richard Ratcliffe at the time and his support and encouragement was a reminder of the strength and resilience needed for this; it kept me going.”

When faced with impossibly unfair situations like these, our common sense of fairness and community can make a real difference to the fates of those who have been targeted. But it shouldn’t all be up to the average person. British citizens should be entitled to the state’s protection, especially in cases like Matthew’s. On the anniversary of his imprisonment, let us come together and urge our government to make sure that happens.