Matthew Hedges was held in solitary confinement for almost six months. Photo / Supplied
Matthew Hedges was held in solitary confinement for almost six months. Photo / Supplied
Matthew Hedges, the academic jailed for spying in the Gulf, has told how he is suffering "severe withdrawal symptoms" after being force-fed a cocktail of drugs by his captors.
Hedges, 31, was held for almost six months in solitary confinement after being arrested at Dubai airport in May on suspicion of spying for MI6.
He was convicted and jailed for life but finally freed a little over a week ago after receiving a presidential pardon.
But Hedges has now revealed how he is struggling to cope with the random medication given to him during his captivity in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
His jailors gave him a combination of Xanax and Valium, both highly addictive tranquillisers in the benzodiazepines group. When his jailors feared he had gone too quiet, they then gave him Ritalin, a stimulant used to treat narcolepsy and ADHD.
The combination - which Hedges' friends say was given without proper medical supervision - has left him reeling in the days since being flown out of the Gulf and back to the UK to be reunited with his wife Daniela Tejada, 27.
Hedges, who had struggled with depression before his arrest, told the Telegraph on Tuesday: "I had been suffering from anxiety and depression and was due to start non-medicated treatment for my mental health upon my return to the UK.
"Those keeping me in the UAE decided they would deal with my panic attacks and bouts of depression by heavily medicating me. I am now having to deal with the consequences of this including quite severe withdrawal symptoms."
It is understood he is now under medical supervision to help to wean him off the drugs.
Matthew Hedges with his wife, Daniela Tejada. Photo / AP
MHedges has also disclosed for the first time how he was held in solitary even after being convicted in an Abu Dhabi court. He also told how he was never allowed to go to a proper jail but was instead kept for the duration of his detention in an interrogation room. It is thought he was held at the UAE's intelligence agency headquarters.
The UAE authorities had been convinced he was spying for MI6 after asking questions about Gulf security for his PhD.
Hedges, an academic at Durham University, believes that a local Emirati, who had fallen foul of the UAE authorities, had made the false spying claim against him in an attempt to curry favour with the ruling elite.
Hedges is now seeking to clear his name and have the spying conviction overturned. He is also considering suing the UAE for false imprisonment and has hired a senior barrister, Rodney Dixon QC, to explore "all legal options and remedies".
Tejada has been highly critical of the Foreign Office for not fighting harder to negotiate her husband's release following his arrest six months ago. The family was advised to keep quiet about his plight amid claims Britain did not want to upset its ally.
Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, has insisted there is no evidence that Hedges is a spy, and finally took up the case in public in early November, just prior to Hedges being convicted and handed down a life sentence. That caused a huge diplomatic rift between the UK and UAE, with universities voting to boycott campuses in the Emirates.
Alex Younger, the Chief of MI6, said the case was "perplexing", and denied that Hedges was ever one of his agents.
