Brian Glendinning to arrive in Edinburgh tomorrow
After two months in Iraqi jail, the Scottish construction engineer is due to arrive at Edinburgh airport tomorrow.
He will be greeted by family and friends after the traumatic ordeal. “Brian will be flying out from Iraq tonight. He is relieved and excited to be coming home and will be met at the airport in an emotional reunion”, announced crisis manager Radha Stirling who has been assisting the family.
“After intense diplomatic efforts, Brian will make it home before the World Cup but this is hardly a victory when this should never have happened. He was wrongfully detained on the basis of a Qatar National Bank issued Interpol Red Notice which violated Interpol’s charter. The excruciating resulting trauma has not been compensated. Qatar has issued no apology and nor have they been penalised by Interpol.
“In fact, Qatar has been rewarded for abusing Interpol’s Red Notice system. The British government can do more to prevent the wrongful arrest of citizens abroad. I’ve been working with Kenny MacAskill, MP whose constituent, Conor Howard, was also subject to wrongful arrest abroad. Kenny has put forward a Parliamentary Question on the matter, asking whether the UK government would warn citizens who are listed on Interpol by notoriously abusive states so that they may apply for their names to be deleted before travel. The government responded that they “won’t get involved” but it is arguably a breach of their duty of care not to, when these injustices have serious consequences that courts have ruled are a violation of their human rights.
“The former justice minister, Mr MacAskill and I intend to pursue more robust protections for British citizens. We can no longer turn a blind eye to situations like this that could be easily prevented.
“Mr Glendinning will join our class action against Interpol once he has rested and recovered”.
PRESS: Please direct media enquiries to radha@radhastirling.com or via WhatsApp +447309114195.