DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates has charged a British PhD student with spying in the Gulf country, as his wife on Tuesday called on Britain to defend his innocence.

Matthew Hedges stands accused of “spying for a foreign country, jeopardising the military, political and economic security of the state”, UAE attorney general Hamad al-Shamsi said late Monday.

The 31-year-old, who was researching the UAE’s foreign and internal security policies after the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions, was detained at Dubai airport on May 5.

Hedges’ wife Daniela Tejada said on Tuesday he had been “held in an undisclosed location in the UAE in solitary confinement” with limited access to the consulate and his family as well as no access to a lawyer until last week.

She said Hedges had been told last week he “was being charged with gathering information and sharing it with a foreign agency — the UK Government”.

Tejada called on the British government to “clarify publicly that Matt is innocent of the charges and that there have been many falsehoods said about him”. “This horrifying situation has been going on for far too long,” she said.

The charges against Hed­ges are based on evidence from investigations carried out by the public prosecution, according to the attorney general.

Hedges had been posing as a researcher to cover his activities, he said, adding that the accusations were backed by “information taken from his electronic devices”.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2018