ALBAWABA - Iraq has released a British construction worker following a two-month imprisonment caused by a debt conviction in Qatar.
Brian Glendinning, 43, from Fife, in east-central Scotland, was not aware that he was on an Interpol wanted list until he was detained in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra on his way to a new job last September, the campaign group Detained in Dubai said.
Great news that my constituent, Brian Glendinning has been released from an Iraqi jail. We’ve all worked hard to make the case & have him returned to his family here in #Scotland - thanks to the @QatarEmb_London who I met last week, @Radha_Stirling @FCDOGovUK and Brian’s family pic.twitter.com/i3UD54WLkF
— Douglas Chapman MP ??????? (@DougChapmanSNP) November 13, 2022
It said on its Website that Glendinning, a father of three and one granddaughter, was released on Sunday and is expected to return home to Kincardine "within days."
Glendinning's brother John told the BBC that he had lived in "vile" conditions in the Iraqi prison. "Brian's beard has grown. There was only a single communal shaver in the jail and he wasn't going to use that," added the brother, whose family had warned football fans going to the World Cup, which opens Sunday, to be "aware of the risks in traveling to Qatar."
"He's in the hotel," he said of his brother's release. "I'm so happy he's free."
In 2017, a Qatari court found Glendinning guilty of defaulting on a debt and sentenced him to jail in absentia for two years.
BBC said he had taken a $23,000 loan from a bank in Qatar while working in Doha in 2016, but could keep up full repayment, when he was made redundant while on a sick leave at home in Scotland. He was in touch with the bank in Qatar, but did not realize that he had been convicted of an offense. An appeal was set up by the family and raised enough money to cover legal costs.
