UK – Daily Mail, Dec. 09, 2025
A British family is bracing for a Christmas miracle after learning that their grandfather’s six-year hell in Dubai prison over debts that were not his own finally looks set to end.
Albert Douglas, 63, was arrested in 2019 and spent the following years suffering in a series of high-security jails where he was tortured by guards, deprived of food and water, and witnessed the rape and suicides of fellow inmates.
His family hope that he will be repatriated within the coming days or weeks after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) ruled following a four-year investigation that Mr Douglas’s detention was arbitrary and had no legal basis under international law.
The British millionaire was sentenced to three years in prison in February 2021, after months spent in detention, over his son’s company’s bounced cheques – despite evidence proving his own innocence.
In October 2023, the court extended his sentence by an additional five years.
Ever since he was detained, his 38-year-old son, Wolfgang, has spent £4million in legal fees fighting to secure his release.
