Saudi Babylon

Saudi Babylon is a shocking tale of a miscarriage of justice, but more disturbingly, it reveals how the British government behaves when one of its citizens is imprisoned by a regime with which it does business.

When Sandy Mitchell was arrested for his alleged involvement in two bombings in Saudi Arabia in December 2000, he thought it was a case of mistaken identity and that he would soon be released. Instead, he spent the next two-and-half-years in jail, where he was repeatedly tortured, before being forced to sign a confession and admit his guilt on Saudi television.

Throughout his incarceration the Saudi authorities knew that the attacks were the work of al-Qaeda militants. Yet they kept Mitchell in jail and refused him access to a lawyer for a year, during which time he was sentenced to death. His eventual release came before the penalty could be imposed.

Based on diaries and records of meetings with ministers and officials, this is a powerful exposé of how the British government acts when one of its own citizens is illegally imprisoned and tortured by a regime with which it does business.