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| Father of woman 'locked up' in Saudi Arabia must help her return to UK | Father of woman 'locked up' in Saudi Arabia must help her return to UK |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| A Saudi academic who allegedly imprisoned his 21-year-old daughter must facilitate her return to the UK, a high court judge has ruled. | A Saudi academic who allegedly imprisoned his 21-year-old daughter must facilitate her return to the UK, a high court judge has ruled. |
| Amina al-Jeffery – who grew up in Swansea and has dual British and Saudi Arabian nationality – says her father, Muhammad al-Jeffery, an academic, locked her up at his home in the Saudi city of Jeddah because she “kissed a guy”. | |
| Lawyers representing Amina have taken legal action and asked Mr Justice Holman to look at ways of helping her. The judge, who analysed the arguments at a public hearing in the family division of the high court in London in July, has begun to deliver a ruling. | Lawyers representing Amina have taken legal action and asked Mr Justice Holman to look at ways of helping her. The judge, who analysed the arguments at a public hearing in the family division of the high court in London in July, has begun to deliver a ruling. |
| Holman was told Amina left Swansea and moved to Saudi Arabia with her family four years ago. There, she was locked in a bedroom with metal bars on the window, beaten and deprived of food and water, the court heard. | |
| Amina’s lawyers had told the court they had had problems communicating with their client, but that she had spoken to a representative of the British consulate, who passed on Amina’s claims that she was locked in her room. She described herself as a “locked-up girl with a shaved head”. | |
| The metal bars had been removed, she said, but she was still locked in the house and prevented from using the internet or phone. | |
| Her father’s barrister, Marcus Scott-Manderson QC, had told the court Jeffery had taken his daughter to Saudi Arabia to “save her life”. Scott-Manderson said Jeffery believed Amina was reckless and had been taking drugs, and “going to clubs and spending time with older men”. | |
| The Saudi government was paying Jeffery’s legal fees, through the ministry of foreign affairs, he added. | |
| Holman is delivering an ex tempore oral judgment. During the hearings he acknowledged the difficulties of enforcing any ruling he makes. He said: “There are limits on the powers of enforcement – there are no reciprocal agreements between the UK and Saudi Arabia.” |