British grandfather Karl Andree will be freed from a Saudi Arabian jail and spared punishment for breaking the country's strict rules on the possession of alcohol, according to foreign secretary Philip Hammond.
The former oil executive, 74, was sentenced to 350 lashes after being caught in the kingdom with homemade wine in the boot of his car. A longtime resident of the country, he has already served a year in jail for the crime but will now be released within days and returned to Britain, where his wife is currently living.
Hammond made the announcement following talks with his Saudi opposite number on a visit to the country.
Delighted to announce Brit Karl Andree will be released from Saudi custody within a week & reunited with his family.
The prime minister welcomed the news that Andree will no longer face the extra punishment. The case had become a domestic issue in the UK, with hundreds of thousands of people signing a petition against the Saudi government's decision, and there was a campaign by the The Sun newspaper to free him.
PM: Good to hear news from #Saudi that #KarlAndree is to be released within the week.
However, activists are still waiting for updates on the case of Saudi political activist Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was sentenced to death for actions carried out when he was 17 years old.
Earlier this month Hammond said he did not "expect" the Saudi government would press ahead with Nimr's execution although he failed to give further details on the prisoner's fate. The threat to Nimr was been raised by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in his speech to the party's annual conference in Brighton.
Relations between Britain and Saudi Arabia are at a new low, with the Saudi ambassador to the UK this week writing a lengthy editorial in the Daily Telegraph warning "there has been an alarming change in the way Saudi Arabia is discussed in Britain" and suggesting that the Middle Eastern country could curtail its intelligence-sharing operations.
He wrote: "One recent example of this mutual respect being breached was when Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Opposition, claimed that he had convinced Prime Minister David Cameron to cancel a prison consultancy contract with Saudi Arabia worth £5.9 million. This coincided with speculation linking the contract's cancellation to a number of domestic events in the Kingdom.
"If the extensive trade links between the two countries are going to be subordinate to certain political ideologies, then this vital commercial exchange is going to be at risk."