I’ve spent £1.6million trying to free my innocent Brit dad from hellhole Dubai jail – now I fear he will die in prison

THE family of a Brit grandad being held in a hellhole Dubai prison fear he will never be freed – despite being cleared of any wrongdoing.

Albert Douglas, 61, has been held since 2021 over a debt – and his son Wolfgang has spent more than £1.4million in a vain bid to clear his name.

Albert Douglas remains in jail in Dubai despite being pardoned

Albert, centre, with his son Wolfgang and two grandkids

PA

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured with her husband Richard, was jailed in Iran on spying charges[/caption]

Londoner Albert once lived a life of extraordinary wealth on Dubai‘s Palm Islands, driving a Rolls Royce with “tens of tens of millions” in the bank.

But in 2021 he was arrested and ordered to pay a £2.5million fine by the UAE after his son’s company, a flooring firm – which he has no association with – amassed debts it couldn’t repay.

The expat tycoon was held over a bounced cheque that he did not write, according to Detained in Dubai.

Even though forensic tests proved the cheque was not his, Albert was hit by a string of other trumped-up charges, it is claimed.

Wolfgang says his dad’s case has now become “personal” – with Albert becoming the equivalent of a bargaining pawn.

And he believes the case is of “equal standing” to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – an Iranian-British dual citizen was detained in Iran from 2016 to 2022 as part of a long running dispute between the UK and Tehran.

Wolfgang also compared the case to British student Matthew Hedges – who was arrested at Dubai on suspicion of spying on behalf of the UK government.

He was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 on charges of espionage before being pardoned.

But Hedges’ lawyer later lodged a complaint against the UK’s Foreign Office – claiming it had failed in its duty of care to negotiate Hedges’ release.

Wolfgang told The Sun: “The Foreign Office don’t want another Nazanin – another failed dictatorship hostage situation.

“And the UAE’s biggest fear is another Matthew Hedges – another person coming out of a Dubai jail explaining methods and mechanisms of torture. 

“It is much easier [for them] to keep him in prison for life.

“The cost of prison is much less damaging than the damage it causes to have bonified testimony of actual torture of UK citizens.

“They would rather him be in jail for another 25 years. He is in prison because a Sheikh has kept him there.

“He continues to stay arbitrarily in the prison based on a conflict of law.”

Wolfgang has repeatedly urged the government to use diplomatic pressure to help free Albert from the hellhole jail.

He said: “The UAE want to cover up crimes they have committed, broken international laws.

“This has surpassed any problem they have accused him [Albert] of.

“The Foreign Office advice is to get a lawyer, but unfortunately there are no lawyers to help you with these laws which are outside of any judicial system. This has become very personal.

“You’re not going to get much higher than where this case is being heard. They have already had to send officials to the United Nations to answer this.”

Wolfgang told The Sun how UAE authorities in October added a minimum “five additional years” to Albert’s prison sentence as they continue to pile on charges with new evidence – while ransacking the company’s accounts.

Albert has been pardoned and even proven torture in front of a UAE human rights hearing – but they have “wriggled out” of being held to account.

Wolfgang says the Sheikh’s office in Dubai has personally put a travel ban on him, but he’s also been handed a deportation order.

The rulings have left Albert trapped in a conflict of contradicting laws leaving him being the “very definition” of being detained arbitrarily indefinitely.

In 2021, his desperate family feared he would die in jail and reportedly hired smugglers to whisk him out of the UAE.

But he was caught climbing a fence on the border with Oman and sentenced to an extra three years.

Speaking of the conditions inside the prison, Wolfgang said: “Months and months without seeing sunlight.

“He had a stroke earlier this year. Onset of dementia or Alzheimers.

“The cure is half an aspirin in the UAE.

“They drug you out of your head to stop you talking to your family.”

Albert’s family have filed a case against the UAE at the UN Human Rights Council – but it may not be heard for years.

Although Wolfgang has spent more than £1million fighting his dad’s case, he also believes he’s managed to block £750million of investment to the UAE.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office told The Sun: “We continue to provide assistance to Mr Douglas and have consistently raised his case with the UAE government, including most recently by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon during his visit to the UAE earlier this month.”

Before he was jailed, Albert was a millionaire and lived in a luxury villa on the emirate’s Jumeirah Island