Ed Miliband calls for release of British man who has been 'outrageously' detained in Dubai's Alcatraz for 18 years after being locked up by 'corrupt system'

Ed Miliband has called for Ryan Cornelius to be released from his detention in the UAE as the 72-year-old's imprisonment is branded 'arbitrary and outrageous' amid fears the businessman may die behind bars. Ryan Cornelius has spent nearly two decades jailed in Dubai's central prison in the Al Awir desert – a world away from the glittering metropolis shown by celebrities and influencers of the United Arab Emirates on social media.The prison, famously dubbed Dubai's Alcatraz, has been repeatedly condemned by human rights groups as a grim, high-security 'hell-hole' where inmates face harsh conditions and overcrowding. Here, the 72-year-old has been locked away in a cell the size of a shipping container, which he shares with six other inmates, despite demands from the United Nations that he be released.The UN has accused the UAE of 'serious judicial irregularities' in Mr Cornelius's case after he was arrested and accused of defrauding the Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) in 2008.He denies the charges, but was handed a decade-long prison sentence, extended by 20 years in 2018, after being found guilty by a court system human rights advocates have described as 'draconian and corrupt'.Now his family fear he will die as the Gulf State refuses to release him from prison despite the country's own constitution stating no one over the age of 70 should be behind bars.Despite several pleas from his family and wife, Heather Cornelius, to the UK Government, including former Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, calls to help free Mr Cornelius went unanswered.However, in a remarkable shift, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has publicly called for his release as fellow MPs brand the 20-year extension to the businessman's detention as 'arbitrary' and 'outrageous'. Ed Miliband has called for Ryan Cornelius's release from the UAE after his detention was branded 'outrageous' and 'arbitrary' during a Parliamentary debate last week Ryan Cornelius has spent nearly two decades behind bars in the United Arab Emirates' central prison in the Al Awir deser (Pictured: Mr Cornelius with his family) British businessman Ryan Cornelius (now 72) was arrested in Dubai 18 years ago over a $500M bank loan used to fund a luxury development project (Pictured: Mr Cornelius with his wife Heather) Ryan is held at Al Awir Central Prison (pictured), a overcrowded, high-security facility in the desert. He shares a cell the size of a shipping container with six other inmates.During a Parliamentary debate on October 27, 2026, Stuart Graham pressed the Labour MP on Mr Cornelius's detention. 'His trial was unfair,' the Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness said. 'His 20-year extension was arbitrary and outrageous. Will the Secretary of State now unequivocally say that Ryan Cornelius should be released?''Yes, I do agree with him, Mr Speaker,' Miliband said in his first public response about the matter. 'It is something we are discussing with our UAE counterparts, and the role of Alistair Burt is also going to be important in this.'We do want to see their release. Absolutely.'Since starting the new role, Miliband appears to have taken up a more outspoken approach to foreign policy. In September, the Labour MP for Doncaster North announced sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and also accused the Israeli government of turning a blind eye to 'ethnic cleansing'. Meanwhile, Alistair Burt's appointment to Envoy for Complex Consular Detentions came to the dismay of families of those detained in the UAE as he was accused of abandoning jailed Brits in the Gulf State.The Tory Grandee was previously in charge of Matthew Hedges's case while he was wrongly detained and tortured by the country during his time as Minister of State for the Middle East. During this time, he signed a four-page memorandum of understanding with the Dubai government to improve the UAE's public relations. In 2019, Mr Burt was made chairman of the Emirates Society - created to improve ties with the Gulf and UK. At the time, Chris Paggett, Mr Cornelius's brother-in-law said Heather was the 'most upset' by the former Conservative MP's elevation. 'She sort of crumpled when she got this news,' he said.Human rights campaigner Sir William Browder dubbed Mr Cornelius 'yet another victim of a draconian and corrupt Middle Eastern legal system in which the courts are used to pursue vendettas, settle scores or raid assets'.In 2008, Mr Cornelius was arrested and accused of defrauding the Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) after taking out a $500million bank loan, which he and another Brit were using to fund investment programmes in the Gulf state. He vehemently denies the charges.During his initial arrest, Mr Cornelius was ordered to sign a statement in Arabic despite not being able to read or speak the language – after hours of being interrogated in a windowless room with no contact with the British Embassy.During his trial, prosecutors alleged he forged invoices for the construction of a luxury development called The Plantation, which includes a 200-room hotel, 100 villas, an equestrian centre and a polo club.Three years later, his case was brought before a Dubai court. He was handed a ten-year jail sentence and, alongside his three co-defendants, ordered to repay the loan and a £500million fine.But after serving his time for the charge of 'theft from public bodies', despite DIB originally being a publicly traded joint-stock firm, he was brought to a closed-door hearing with no lawyer or notice and handed a further 20 years in jail under Dubai Law no 37.Earlier this year, the experts at the UN found that his detention was arbitrary and once again called for his immediate release amid concerns the businessman had been 'tortured' behind bars. The European Parliament also made the same demands. It comes after the jailed businessman's loyal wife, Heather Cornelius, delivered a letter to Andy Burnham calling for her husband's release on September 14 of this year. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mrs Cornelius spoke of her agony after her family's pleas for her husband's release had fallen on the deaf ears of the British Government for 18 years.'I'd like to have an answer from Andy Burnham,' Mrs Cornelius said. 'We didn't get an answer from Keir Starmer. I sent to [him] last year in April... We've had no reply.'Her brother-in-law, Chris Paggett OBE, who worked for the Foreign Office for 32 years, added they had delivered two letters to Sir Keir – one in November before he visited the UAE and another last April. Both went unanswered. He maintained the Foreign Office 'just ignored Ryan's case for 14 years' because 'it suited them to believe Dubai's version of events', adding that Sir Keir 'never even bothered to reply'. 'To do otherwise was too inconvenient to their objective of having a close relationship with this wealthy country,' he said. 'We're hoping that Andy Burnham will be different.''This is a matter for the Prime Minister now. Burnham needs to involve himself in this because manifestly nothing else has worked.' Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the billionaire ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE, is one of the biggest landowners in Britain, and as of 2021, owned more than 40,000 hectares in London, Scotland and Newmarket.In May 2008, Mr Cornelius, who was once a successful entrepreneur living with his family in Bahrain, was arrested by men in civilian clothes as he changed flights in Dubai and whisked away in an unmarked car. Initially, they approached him amid suspicions that he was carrying drugs. Although a search found nothing, he was still taken to Dubai's police headquarters with his hands bound with zip ties and a hood placed over his head.After hours of interrogation with no access to lawyers, family or the British Embassy, the accusations against him were no longer drugs but fraud, as they alleged he stole $500million from the DIB. Now Heather is set to hand a letter to Andy Burnham in the hopes he will finally take action after years of the British government 'turn[ing] a blind eye' Ryan Cornelius (right), pictured with his wife Heather and their three children, may have been tortured by authorities in the United Arab Emirates. UN human rights experts have warned But after serving his time, Mr Cornelius (pictured with his son) was brought to a closed-door hearing in 2018 with no lawyer or notice and handed a further 20 years in jail under Dubai Law no 37. It came amid concerns from Dubai authorities about the sizeable loan he and another Brit were using to fund investment ventures in the area amid the fallout of the global financial crash. Lord Clement-Jones, a lawyer and Lib Dem peer, who has fearlessly backed Mr Cornelius, said the original issue surrounding the loan and the receipts was 'technical' rather than fraud. And since May 2008, he has been locked away in the UAE prison where he has been handed a 20-year prison extension on top of his decade sentence in a closed-door hearing with no lawyer.And despite the UAE Constitution outlining inmates should be freed after the age of 70, Mr Cornelius's application to be released at this age was denied. But amid the government's inaction and Mr Cornelius's health issues, having contracted tuberculosis, Covid on two occasions, as well as his borderline diabetes, his family fear he may never be released from the desert prison. 'It's a massive concern, and we are looking at that very possibility,' Heather said. 'We need someone to see that this is going nowhere unless we do get much more substantial help.'Describing the last 18 years as 'absolutely life-changing' for not just herself but her children and her family as a whole, she added: 'Nothing has been normal since Ryan was arrested.'[It's] become more and more frightening every year because it's just so difficult to get any justice. 'We just don't get anywhere with, you know, getting anywhere with the British government, you know, standing up for the rights of British people like Ryan Cornelius.''My family's been devastated. Everything in our lives has been affected by this. And it is something we can never repair or get back. It just doesn't get any easier. It is really difficult.'Every time you think that you might have some little bit of hope, it just gets dashed. We've had absolutely no help [from the British government] whatsoever.' She added: 'At the beginning, the very beginning, I thought, 'I'll get Ryan home. This has all been a big mistake.' We all just tried to survive'But to tell you the truth, every single year since he was arrested, it has just got more and more difficult for all of us.'In the fallout of his conviction, authorities in Dubai seized all of Mr Cornelius's business assets, his personal properties including homes in London, and drained his bank accounts. His family was left homeless. Pictured: A screenshot from a video of construction taking place on the plot of land dubbed The Plantation which Mr Cornelius formerly owned The Plantation land seized by the DIB has been renamed 'The Acres' and is being developed by a Dubai Holdings real estate companyMeanwhile, as of 2024 in Meeras, the Plantation land seized by the DIB has been renamed 'The Acres' and is being developed by a Dubai Holdings real estate company. The Daily Mail has obtained footage of construction being carried out on the site as his family accuses the Gulf state of trying to keep him jailed 'until he dies' so the businessman can never 'mount any kind of legal challenge against' the UAE. It is marketed as a luxury development, comprising 1200 villas – the cheapest priced at $1.5million.Mr Paggett accused the British Government of 'turn[ing] a blind eye' and, as such, strengthening the UAE's 'feeling that they can act with impunity' as 'the world needs their money too much'. 'This is very much an issue for our times, and it's one Western democracies like ours haven't yet found an answer to.'But increasingly, autocracies, particularly rich autocracies, have the badge of traditionally being sort of friendly autocracies, friends of the West, are able to ignore what they want to ignore. The UAE has an awful lot of question marks over it now.'At no point has the British government given the UAE any reason to think that what it's doing to Ryan would be anything other than cost-free.'He believes that Ryan would not be behind bars currently if the British government 'had the gumption early on'. Comparing their battle with David and Goliath, he added: 'We're just a family. We haven't got any money. We're facing a well-resourced machine.'Meanwhile, Heather and her family, who once 'loved' living in the Middle East and was full of 'great excitement' at eventually moving to Dubai when her husband's project was finished, have missed out on a lifetime with Mr Cornelius. Milestones such as birthdays, funerals, university excitement and even the birth of his first grandchild this year have all been robbed from the 72-year-old, who has but the tiny view of the sprawling desert from his cell. 'We've gradually lost, you know, anything that we did have. Ryan is bankrupt,' Heather added. 'I think the damage done to all of us on mental health will continue to affect us for the rest of our lives.'Our children are very strong. Ryan's strong. I've had to find some strength somewhere.'But I think there's a limit to how long you can keep drawing on those reserves to get some strength.She added: 'There's a greater hope now with the new Andy Burnham. They should do this for every British citizen, not just for Ryan.'An FCDO Spokesperson said: 'The UK Government continues to raise Mr Cornelius' case with the UAE authorities and is providing ongoing consular support to him and his family.'READ MORE: Innocent Briton was thrown into Dubai's Alcatraz 18 years ago - but his marriage remains unbreakable READ MORE: British man, 72, detained in Dubai for 18 years may have been 'tortured', UN rights experts warn