DaNGeROuS KiLLeR Posted November 11, 2015 Posted November 11, 2015 A 74-year-old British grandfather who spent more than a year in a Saudi jail for possessing homemade wine has returned home, the British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said on Wednesday.The Briton, Karl Andree, a former oil executive who had been living in Saudi Arabia for decades, was arrested by the religious police in Jidda in August 2014 for violating the kingdom’s tough laws on alcohol.His family had been campaigning for the British government to press for his release. They feared that Mr. Andree, an asthmatic who has survived cancer, could be subject to a public flogging as part of his sentence and that he might not survive it, although there was no indication that he was about to receive that punishment.“I’m pleased that he has returned home to be reunited with his family, bringing to an end an extremely tough time for him and his family,” Mr. Hammond said in a statement, adding that the release reflected the strong ties between Britain and Saudi Arabia.Saudi Arabia is Britain’s biggest market for arms exports and its most important trade partner in the Middle East. Relations between the two countries were strained in October after the government canceled a 5.9 million pound, or nearly $9 million, deal to provide “training needs analysis” for Saudi prisons on the same day that Mr. Andree’s family made its concerns publicly known.Opponents of the deal argued that it was inappropriate given the kingdom’s human rights record, including its treatment of prisoners and those who breach the country’s harsh religious laws.
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