SANDY Mitchell shed tears of joy as he checked out of Saudi Arabia’s notorious al-Haier jail, struggling to believe that he was actually being given his freedom.
So overcome with emotion was he that he even embraced a prison guard as he was given back his personal possessions.
Just moments before, the Scot - who said he was tortured into making a confession that he masterminded a campaign of bombings link
ed to a gangland war over bootleg alcohol - had been facing a very different exit from his grim cell in al-Haier.
With negotiations between the British and Saudi governments deadlocked and a petition for clemency seemingly mired in secretive courtroom debate, 44-year-old Mitchell was heading towards ‘Chop Chop Square’ in the capital Riyadh, where public executions are carried out. In King Fahd’s Saudi Arabia, mercy is not a common virtue. Last year 48 people were executed in the kingdom, while amputation and flogging are regular punishments, backed up by one of the world’s most secretive and arbitrary systems of justice.
But suddenly, without any warning or explanation, King Fahd announced on Wednesday that Mitchell and five other westerners were to be released.
Michael O’Kane, a lawyer with the Saudi-based firm that represented the six men, said: "They were all very emotional when they found out. It really was a reversal of fortune. Sandy Mitchell was very happy and he was speculating about his future and what he would do.
"I said: ‘You’re still a young man, you have a lot of life ahead of you. Five years from now this experience you went through will seem as if it was a dream. As time goes on it will be less and less a factor in your life.’"
The release of Mitchell, from Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, and William Sampson, who was born in Glasgow but holds a Canadian passport, from death row also stunned the British authorities, who had been working behind the scenes to secure their release along with four other Britons.
The pair, who were arrested in December 2000, were originally accused of planting a car bomb that killed fellow Briton Christopher Rodway, 47, and injured his wife Jane in the previous month. It was said to be part of a series of bombs set off in the Saudi capital.
But Mitchell and the others maintained confessions were beaten out of them and the case attracted support from human rights organisations across the world.
Four other Britons, James Cottle from Manchester, Peter Brandon from Cardiff, Les Walker from the Wirral and James Patrick Lee, were also arrested and sentenced to 12-year sentences after allegedly confessing to their roles in the campaign. The seventh Briton, Glenn Ballard, had been detained for 10 months but not charged.
Their time in prison was a gruelling - and humiliating - experience. Kept in solitary confinement, the Saudis also broadcast television "confessions" by, first, Mitchell, Sampson and a Belgian, Raaf Schyvens, and later Lee, Cottle and Walker. In both television screenings the accused men appeared physically exhausted and dazed, perhaps even drugged. They read their confessions in toneless voices.
It emerged last year that more Britons who had been arrested by the Saudis on alcohol offences had been tortured, beaten and subjected to sleep deprivation as the Saudis attempted to force them to confess to the bombings. They were later freed to tell their story, and human rights’ organisations have little doubt that the men released last week will have been through a similarly harsh ordeal.
But embarrassingly for the Saudi authorities, the bombings continued even after they had arrested those they said were responsible.
The first bomb went off in March 2000, injuring Ron Jones from Hamilton. After Rodway was killed, David Brown, who used to live in Edinburgh, lost his hand and eyesight in an explosion in December.
But then in May 2001, after the British men were in custody, American Gary Hatch was injured in a bomb blast. Michael Gerald, also from the US, was killed in October 2001 and then in June last year another explosion killed Briton Simon Veness.
Brown, who now lives in Southport, is one of the many who believe the attacks were the work of Islamic terrorists, furious at the Saudi regime’s close links to the US, and that this was an embarrassment the authorities decided to ignore.
The 34-year-old father-of-two, who was working as an accounts manager for Coca-Cola when he was caught in the blast, said: "I believe it was a terrorist act which injured me and you would be drawn to the conclusion that it was Islamic militants."
The British government has protested the men’s innocence but the Foreign Office shied clear of controversial claims that the Saudis turned a blind eye to Islamic militant terrorism.
Its response to the surprise release of the men was customarily low key, reflecting both the conservative nature of the department and the recognition that dealings with Saudi Arabia demand the most delicate of manoeuvring.
"I greatly welcome the release of British citizens from custody in Saudi Arabia," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. "It has obviously been a very difficult time for the men, and for their families. Ministers and officials have worked hard for this outcome."
The Saudi government was similarly diplomatic, but avoided shedding any light on the reasons behind the men’s release.
"Under Sharia [law] and in such cases, King Fahd has the right to reduce the sentence of prisoners," the Saudi embassy in London said.
"Therefore Kind Fahd has ordered that the sentence served by these prisoners is to be lessened, that the time they have already spent in prison is to be deemed sufficient punishment and that they are to be set free."
But privately British officials voiced their anger at the Saudis’ "appalling behaviour" and apparent refusal to bring the matter to a swift conclusion.
They said the Foreign Office’s official statements obscured stalled negotiations and frustration stretching back nearly three years.
"It’s been very depressing," a senior source admitted. "The case against the men was pretty flimsy.
Some of them were obviously involved in making and selling alcohol, but nothing like this [bombing].
"The conditions they were in were grim to say the least."
The prisoners were visited by British consular staff, who helped put them in touch with O’Kane and other lawyers. But it was not until several months had passed, with no prospect of an early end to their ordeal, that the UK government began to increase the pressure.
"The involvement has been up to the highest levels, from Jack Straw to the Prime Minister himself," one FCO insider said. "Mr Blair has made his feelings clear on this."
The top-level interventions included two personal appeals to the Saudis’ representative in London, including one in the last two months.
This government is as sensitive as any of its predecessors to allegations that it is afraid to upset the Saudis for fear of losing vital trade links. Britain delivered a humiliating apology to the House of Saud in 1980 over the television film Death of a Princess after a row which cost British arms companies £200m in Saudi contracts.
On this occasion, however, Britain’s politicians believed they had the upper hand in their delicate negotiations: the tottering Saudi rulers remain desperate to "rehabilitate" themselves with western allies following the furore sparked by the fact that
15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were from the kingdom and 125 of the inmates at Guantanamo Bay, where al-Qaeda suspects are being held, are also Saudi.
British diplomats were convinced that the Saudis would accept the case against the men was unsustainable. But they held out. Worse, for those conducting the perilous dialogue, they failed to live up to their promises. Mitchell, Sampson and the rest should have been free men months ago.
"Time and time again we have thought they were about to be released," said a well-placed official of the negotiations. "We have been hoping for this since the end of June. We really did hope this would be resolved much earlier.
"The Saudi leaders’ behaviour has been appalling for months. We thought we had their word of honour that these guys would be released much earlier.
"But, having arrested these guys they got themselves into a mess. They weren’t quite sure what grounds to hold them on, or how they could let them out."
British officials insist there was no "secret deal" behind the release of the men, that they offered the Saudis no more than a return to the harmonious status quo of normal relations, an especially important invitation given the state’s fractured relations with the Americans.
But it was not enough. The central problem became the simple issue of offering the Saudis themselves an escape route; the honourable way out so uniquely important to them, which would shift the blame for the debacle elsewhere.
While the tortuous negotiations continued, British officials themselves were giving up hope.
As legions of Foreign Office staff headed off for their August holiday during the quietest month of their year, many had written off the chances of an early return for the Riyadh Six.
One said: "Up until really about five days ago, although we were not quite hoping against hope, we were certainly very pessimistic."
The resolution was swift, and the British believe the post-September 11 climate had helped, but it hinged on the simple device of a letter of apology by the convicted men to the Saudi authorities.
The son of Christopher Rodway, who died in the car bombing on November 17, 2000, also wrote a letter to the Saudis asking for the prisoners’ release, although he had to be careful not to suggest he believed their arrest had been wrong.
Justin Rodway, 28, said: "I would like to think the letter had some effect but I just don’t know.
"I had to write it very carefully. I said I respected their decision, but forgave the men and was prepared for them to be free. I had to let the Saudis save face."
But Rodway’s widow Jane said she was "shocked" by the men’s release.
The 53-year-old from Reading said: "I’m a bit stunned and worried because they all said they were innocent and if they are, who did kill my husband and try to kill me?
"I just think, what next? Somebody killed my husband. I need to be given evidence from somewhere. I need to know the truth."
MEN WHO ESCAPED ROUGH JUSTICE SANDY MITCHELL The 44-year-old from Kirkintilloch was chief anaesthetics technician at the King Fahd Hospital in Riyadh, and a well-known face on the ex-pat drinking scene there. Appeared on television confessing to planting the bomb that killed Christopher Rodway, and was sentenced to death by beheading.
WILLIAM SAMPSON Born in Glasgow, although he held a Canadian passport, he worked for the Saudi development fund. Also confessed to a role in Rodway’s murder, but refused to co-operate with the Saudi system. Spent most of his time in solitary confinement. Was sentenced to death.
LES WALKER Director of a soft-drinks company in Riyadh, Walker, from Wirral, had just begun his second marriage when he was arrested, and after his televised confession was sentenced to 12 years.
JAMES LEE Nicknamed Jimmy the Leg, a prosthetics engineer, he was the landlord of an illicit bar known as the Leg’s Arms on a Westerners-only compound. Received a 12-year sentence.
PETE BRANDON A chef from Cardiff who had worked in one of the local bars. Did not make a televised confession.
JAMES COTTLE Father of three from Manchester, Cottle, a landscaping gardener, was arrested in Bahrain while en route to Thailand. Confessed on television. His ex-wife, Mary Martini, has campaigned vocally for his release.
GLEN BALLARD and RAF SCHYVENS Ballard was detained for seven months but was never charged. It remains unclear whether Schyvens, a Belgian who confessed alongside Sampson and Mitchell, has been released.
The full article contains 2053 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
