A British grandfather who was sentenced to a flogging for breaking Saudi Arabia’s strict anti-alcohol laws has been reunited with his family in the UK. Karl Andree, 74, was threatened with 350 lashes after he was caught with home-made wine in Jeddah. He was put on a plane to Britain on Tuesday night after being freed from a Saudi prison, where he had been locked up since August last year.
British oil worker Karl Andree, who had been threatened with flogging after breaching strict alcohol laws, will be released from Saudi custody within a week and reunited with his family, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said today.
The grandchildren of a British man who reportedly faces 350 lashes for breaking the law in Saudi Arabia have appealed directly to David Cameron as “his only hope”. Karl Andree, who has battled cancer and suffers from asthma, was arrested in Jeddah in August last year for breaching the country’s strict anti-alcohol laws after he was caught with home-made wine. The 74 year old has served his time in jail but is still locked up as Saudi officials wait to carry out the lashings, according to his son Simon Andree.
More than 75,000 people have signed a petition urging the release of a British grandfather who reportedly faces 350 lashes after breaking the law in Saudi Arabia when he was caught with home-made wine.