London says Yemen frees Briton held since 2017

Britain stated on Sunday it had secured the discharge of a citizen held since 2017 in Yemen, wherein he was allegedly tortured.

“Delighted that Luke Symons, who became unlawfully detained, without price or trial due to the fact that 2017 in Yemen with the aid of the Huthis, has been launched and could quickly be reunited with his circle of relatives,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss stated in a declaration issued by means of her department.

“I pay tribute to our Omani and Saudi partners and our team for securing his release.”

Symons, 30, was detained by Huthi rebels in southwest Yemen along with his Yemeni wife on suspicion of espionage, which his family strongly denies.

The Foreign Ministry of Oman tweeted that it had “coordinated with the concerned authorities” in Yemen.

Symons and 11 other detainees were released and transferred from Yemen capital Sanaa to Muscat on a plane belonging to the Royal Air Force of Oman, it added.

Of the 11 other detainees released, Oman said seven were Indians, one Filipino, one Indonesian, one from Myanmar and one from Ethiopia.

Symons’ family say his arm was broken during one interrogation session in a bid to force a confession, and that his physical and mental health have degenerated during solitary confinement in the capital Sanaa.

His wife had already been released and has been able to go to him periodically inside the jail. She these days voiced issue at his condition, according to Symons’ grandfather Robert Cummings.

“Luke’s going through hell. He’s getting no medical attention, and we’ve been going backward, not forward, with this (UK) government,” Cummings told AFP by phone in February from the family’s home in Cardiff.