[Kaveren]

Surely even if he is a spy, the UK will eventually be able to negotiate his release? How many years could this take? UAE has a lot of revenue from tourism, I don't know how much of that is from the UK, but I assume that provides enough leverage to get something going. I just don't see a life sentence being a true life sentence for any citizen Westerner caught by a nation like the UAE.

[fyfy18]

UAE and UK are pretty must best friends. Historically they have strong ties from the days of the British empire (Britain was allied with most of the Gulf countries to secure trade routes to India), and even now there are very strong political, economic and royal ties to the country. Most of the Western expats living there are from the UK, and there are a lot of UK financial companies with offices there. Going the other way, London is the place to go for Emiratis that want to escape the summer heat. I'm sure there is a lot more going on behind the scenes to provoke this reaction.