British man in Saudi Arabia told he will be charged over tweet deleted six years ago

A British man is set to go before a court in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday over a deleted tweet from 2018 and a perceived association with someone deemed to be a threat to the kingdom’s national security, his family and friends told Middle East Eye.

Ahmed al-Doush, a father of four, was returning to the UK after a holiday last August when he was arrested at the airport in Riyadh, the last time he saw his wife and children.

The 41-year-old was held for more than five months, including 33 days in solitary confinement during which he was interrogated, before he was brought before a judge in late January and told that charges were being brought.

After his first court appearance, Saudi authorities assigned Doush a lawyer and the two men have had one virtual meeting about his case, Doush has told his family.

However, when his wife, Amaher Nour, reached the lawyer by phone, he denied any knowledge of the case or of her husband, she told Middle East Eye. The lawyer had since been more receptive, but said he is limited in what he can say because of data protection.

"Now, I am waiting for Ahmed to get the chance to speak to his lawyer again, so that he can give him permission to share the details of the case with me," Nour said.

This is the latest twist in an ordeal that has repeatedly left Doush’s family and friends struggling to know how to help him and, for stretches of time, even where or how he is.

It's also a jarring reminder that arrests in Saudi Arabia over social media posts are still occurring, despite the recent release of dozens of prisoners, including Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University doctoral candidate, and Assad al-Ghamdi, the brother of a UK-based dissident, both sentenced over tweets.

The case, too, raises questions about the British government's commitment to its electoral pledge to strengthen support for citizens held abroad, particularly in cases in which there are concerns of human rights violations.

Doush's family say Saudi authorities stopped the British government from having consular access to him for the first two and half months that he was detained. During this time, they say Foreign Office officials refused to share any information about Doush’s well-being with his wife, citing data protection laws.

Despite now having clarity about why and where Doush is being held, his supporters are concerned authorities may have been withholding his medication for thyroid and back problems since January.

They also say the former senior bank analyst, normally a very sociable person who likes to play football, doesn’t sound like himself on phone calls, and that those calls have become irregular to punish him after he asked his wife about prisoners who had recently been released.

“In the last few calls, I’ve been very concerned,” she told MEE. “I have a sense that he’s worried. He’s not himself. He’s not comfortable speaking.”

'Shocked and surprised'

The last time Nour saw her husband was at the airport in Riyadh as he was taken away by plain-clothed officers last August, along with the couple's two daughters, Haya, five, and Leah, nine.

The two grew up together as neighbours in Cairo. Doush had moved to the UK, but during visits home, they were reacquainted and, in 2013, they married.

Last summer, Nour, who was then pregnant, took their three children to visit her family who are living in Saudi Arabia. Doush joined later in the trip, in part to help Nour with the flight home.

But he never made it on the flight. Two hours after they were taken away with their father, Haya and Leah were returned to their mother. Then Nour's phone rang.

Doush said he had been told there was a visa issue. It might take a few hours to resolve, but he was confident he would jump on the next plane to Turkey where the family was transiting to the UK.

“He was so optimistic. He said, ‘I’ll catch up with you in Istanbul,” she said. 

Instead, Nour has spent much of the six months seeking answers about why her husband was imprisoned and how to get him out. The couple now have a fourth child, born in December.

'I was genuinely shocked and surprised about why this is happening and very confused'

- Amaher Nour, Ahmed al-Doush's wife

Doush's case has been a difficult one for his family and friends to figure out. In the absence of information, they thought his case might be one of mistaken identity.

“I was genuinely shocked and surprised about why this is happening and very confused,” Nour said of her state of mind after she returned from Saudi Arabia to the family home in Manchester.

But 10 days after his disappearance, Saudi state security agents called Nour’s brother. “They said, ‘He’s with us’,” she said. They were looking for any laptops or electronic devices he might have left behind, but did not explain why he was being held.

The British foreign office, meanwhile, had opened a case file on Doush after a family friend, who has asked to remain anonymous for his safety and security, contacted them after the family's return from Saudi Arabia.

“They seemed sympathetic and said they’d get back to me in due course,” the friend said. “It was relatively positive for somebody who doesn’t know the process.

“We were pleased with that. But then 24 hours, 48 hours pass by. A week later, still nothing.”

The friend said he had contacted the foreign office daily, asking for updates. He said he was told he would get a call back, but head nothing.

Eventually, after one of his calls, the foreign office sent him an email urging the family to let “due process take its course” and offering a link to a website with a list of five Saudi lawyers, he said.

In September, when he rang one of them, the lawyer said: “‘If Saudi state security have him, then he must have done something’.” Others were "non-responsive" once he laid out the case.

Interrogated in solitary

It was only on 17 November that Nour received a call from Doush: he told her he had been held in solitary confinement for his first 33 days during which time he had been interrogated about his social media activity.

His X account, at that point, had 37 followers and four posts, three of which were replies to other people. It is understood that the interrogators were asking Doush about a tweet that had been deleted in 2018.

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Doush himself could not recall what tweet his interrogators might have been referring to, yet was told during his questioning that if not for his Twitter activity, he would be home in the UK.

When Nour shared the news with his friends, they set about forensically checking his social media accounts, but they couldn’t find anything and have stressed that he is not a political person.

“He had no activity whatsoever on anything political. He was a private family man doing his job,” Nour said. 

Weeks passed and the UK government’s request for a second consulate visit was not being granted. Doush had been told during the first visit that going public could harm his case, but now Nour wasn’t sure she had a choice.

In January, several stories about Doush's case appeared in British media, including on MEE. Within two days, the UK government was again given consular access to Doush, his lawyer said.

Several weeks later, without warning, Doush was brought before a judge, only realising what was happening when he arrived at the hearing. He was informed about the charges that authorities say they intend to issue against him. 

Violation of international norms

Doush is accused of spreading fake, untrue and damaging news against Saudi Arabia with the deleted tweet from 2018, and for having a relationship with an individual who is a threat to the kingdom's national security. Saudi authorities have not specified who the individual in question is.

The family, however, are convinced it is the son of Saad al-Fagih, a Saudi dissident based in the UK, but stress that Doush doesn't know or interact at all with the elder Fagih. Even if he did, that this would not warrant his arrest, said his UK-based lawyer, Haydee Dijkstal.

Dijkstal, who is head of international law at 33 Bedford Row chambers, filed a formal complaint about Doush's treatment to the UN working group on arbitrary detention in December.

'It is worrying that the UK government would simply step back and take no position on these violations of a British citizen’s rights'

- Haydee Dijkstal, Doush's lawyer

The complaint argues that his detention is arbitrary because Doush was interrogated without a lawyer, held away from his family and left unaware of his charges but also because his detention is related to the exercise of his right to free expression and association, which are protected under international law.

It also raises concerns over the family's frustration with the UK government's lack of urgency to resolve Doush's situation as well as the refusal to share information early on which they feel exacerbated the situation for Doush and them.

It is understood that Foreign Secretary David Lammy raised Doush's case with the Saudi ambassador in the UK and with his counterparts during a recent trip to the kingdom, but the government's public silence over the extraordinary reasons for his detention remain troubling to the family.

“The FCDO has made clear to Mr al-Doush’s family that their priority is his welfare, and that their role does not allow interference in foreign domestic proceedings, which is understood and acknowledged," Dijkstal said.

"But when a UK national finds himself detained and potentially prosecuted for exercising their fundamental rights under international law which is applicable to both the UK and the detaining country, and when those domestic proceedings involve further violations to international norms on fair trials, it is worrying that the UK government would simply step back and take no position on these violations of a British citizen’s rights.” 

Before the last election, the Labour Party pledged to introduce a new right to consular assistance for British nationals who find themselves in cases involving alleged human rights violations abroad. Consular support is currently provided to British nationals entirely at the government's discretion. 

Rupert Skilbeck, the director of Redress, a UK-based charity which has worked with British citizens arbitrarily detained and ill-treated abroad, said he believes it is urgent for the government to introduce a legal right to consular assistance.  

"This would end the current practice of leaving support up to the discretion of the Foreign Office, and provide families with much-needed clarity on what’s being done to protect their loved ones' rights and wellbeing," Skillbeck said.

"Labour promised to introduce this right, and we know that they are looking at it, but unfortunately, there’s still no clear timeline for when a new law will be enacted. We urge the government to follow through on its commitment.”

Asked if it was concerned that it appears a British national will be tried on charges linked to exercising his rights, the Foreign Office would only confirm that it was supporting a British man detained in Saudi and was in contact with his family and local authorities. 

The Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment.