Britain ´grateful´ to UAE for pardoning academic: minister

LONDON: British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt expressed gratitude to the UAE on Monday for pardoning a British academic sentenced to life in prison on spying charges, as the Briton´s wife expressed her joy at the news.

"Fantastic news about Matthew Hedges. Although we didn´t agree with charges we are grateful to UAE govt for resolving issue speedily," Hunt said on Twitter.

Hedges´s wife Daniela Tejada, who last saw him on the day he was sentenced last week, told BBC radio: "We´re absolutely elated at the news".

Asked about the United Arab Emirates´ repeated accusation that Hedges was a spy, Tejada said: "In my heart, I know that he isn´t".

But she added: "If that´s what it takes for him to be back, I welcome the news".

Hunt said on BBC radio of the spying charges: "We have never seen any evidence that they are true".

Hunt said he now expected Hedges to be released "very soon indeed", adding that it was a "bittersweet moment" because of other Britons detained unjustly around the world.

Hedges, a 31-year-old researcher at Durham University, was detained in Dubai on May 5 while researching the UAE´s foreign and internal security policies after the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011.

After his sentencing, Hedges´s family had submitted a plea for clemency to UAE authorities.

Britain considers the UAE to be a strategic Middle East ally and supplies the country with arms.