The UK Foreign Office says his case has been raised with the Saudi authorities.

Its current travel advice warns that it is illegal in Saudi Arabia to say anything publicly that the authorities “deem disruptive to public order”. And it urges visitors to avoid commenting on the royal family, the Saudi authorities, or “issues that could be perceived as political”.

“Speaking publicly about these issues can be defined by the Saudi authorities as posing a threat to national security,” the advice states.

It adds: “Statements made on social media many years ago, or those published outside Saudi Arabia, may be taken into account. Punishment can include long custodial sentences.”

Al-Doush’s legal team in the UK say that neither they, his family, nor the UK government have been allowed to see any of the legal papers related to his case, including the judgment, despite repeated requests. So they don’t fully understand the charges against him or the basis of his conviction.

But his London-based lawyer, Haydee Dijkstal, says he appears to have been questioned over several tweets posted in 2018 – and subsequently deleted – about Sudan, where he was born, and over his acquaintance with the son of a UK-based Saudi dissident.

She says Al-Doush was initially held for five months without charge, and interrogated without a lawyer before being sentenced in May 2025 to 10 years in jail by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court, which is understood to have convicted him of using social media to spread fake news against the government. Human rights groups say the court has been used as a political tool, relying on vague counterterrorism and cybercrime laws to punish online expression.

This April, Al-Doush’s sentence was reduced on appeal to five years. But his physical and mental health are still deteriorating, according to his wife.

Amnesty International says he is being held in a cell built for six to eight people, currently housing around 16 prisoners. His phone calls home have been frequently restricted, the group says. And he’s been warned that he will be punished if he discusses his health, or his legal case.

“Ahmed Al-Doush has a family in the United Kingdom who urgently need him. He has been imprisoned for nothing more than social media posts – posts that would raise no eyebrow in any democratic country,” says Eilidh Macpherson of Amnesty International UK.

“His health is now in crisis, and every day he remains detained is another day of unconscionable injustice inflicted not just on him, but on four young children who are growing up without their father.”

“The Saudi authorities have the power to end this nightmare today,” she adds. “We call on them to act without delay: release Ahmed Al-Doush and allow him to return home.”

The group has also appealed to governments around the world to update their travel advice to ensure visitors to Saudi Arabia are aware of the risks that their past social media activity could entail, as the country gears up to host the World Cup in 2034 and other major events.

A German palliative care doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 15 of his patients.

A court in Berlin found the 41-year-old man, named only as Johannes M. in line with German privacy rules, guilty of murdering 12 women and 3 men between September 2021 and July 2024.

The authorities believe these killings could be just the tip of the iceberg. Prosecutors are currently investigating dozens of other incidents involving the doctor.

His victims were between the ages of 25 and 94. The court heard how they were all critically ill, but that their deaths were not imminent.

Prosecutors said that during home visits, the doctor administered a lethal combination of various medicines without his patients’ consent.

On several occasions, they said he set fires to cover his tracks.

In July 2024, shortly before his arrest, prosecutors said the doctor killed two patients in a single day – a 75-year-old man at his home in central Berlin and, a few hours later, a 76-year-old woman in a neighbouring district.

They said the doctor tried to set fire to the woman’s house, but failed.

For much of the trial, which has gone on for about a year, the doctor said nothing. But last month, he confessed to having “killed people,” twelve of his severely ill patients.

He told the court he had convinced himself that he was doing the right thing, sparing them “suffering and infirmity”.

“Throughout it all, I thought this was the best thing for everyone,” he said.

He said he apologised for all the suffering he had caused.

The authorities suspect him of having killed further patients. Prosecutors are currently investigating 76 other cases.

German media say if the further cases are proven, and he is found guilty, it would be one of the largest incidences of serial murder in Germany’s history.

The doctor told the court that he would “get involved much earlier in the forthcoming proceedings.”

Earlier in the trial, relatives of the victims told the court they still couldn’t believe it.

The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, was in tears. “She never said she didn’t want to live anymore,” she said.

The son of a 72-year-old woman who died in 2024, said his mother had had plans to go to the Baltic Sea with her sister. “My mother wanted to keep on living,” he said.

The court ruled that the doctor’s guilt was particularly serious. It ordered that the doctor be put in preventive detention, following his prison sentence. It also imposed a lifetime ban on him practising medicine.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband has urged the government to scale up efforts to return a jailed British couple from Iran to prevent another family being separated for years.

Craig and Lindsay Foreman were arrested by Iranian authorities in January while on a motorbike trip from Europe to Australia. They were accused of espionage, a charge which the couple and their family deny.

Richard Ratcliffe told the BBC the government should have learned lessons from his wife’s detention, urging it to take “serious measures”.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) said it takes all “allegations of human rights violations, including that a detention may be arbitrary, very seriously”.

“The assistance we can provide depends on the individual circumstances of the case and the local conditions – the impact and influence we can have will not always be the same,” an FCDO spokesperson said.

But Mr Ratcliffe says the government needs to increase its transparency with the family about the strategies it’s employing to return the couple.

He said it should “stop pretending this is going to sort itself out, and take serious measures to get them home, rather than leave another family separated for years.”

British officials, negotiators, and decision-makers need to update their policy in dealing with state hostage-taking, he said.

“The current pretence is unsustainable, and seems to put all the burden and blame on the victims,” he told the BBC.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian national and charity project manager, had been visiting Iran with her daughter Gabriella when she was arrested in 2016.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard accused her of trying to overthrow the state, which she denied.

Her husband spearheaded a campaign for her release until she was returned after nearly six years.

One of the “deep frustrations” early on in Nazanin’s case was how slow the UK government moved, and “how quick they were to deflect and downplay what Nazanin was going through,” he said, adding that it took years for ministers to acknowledge Nazanin was being taken hostage.

“I always felt her suffering was made worse by the government’s pretence.”

“We did hope by telling our story that the government would learn lessons, and wouldn’t keep repeating these mistakes,” he said.

“But the more I hear about their approach to Craig and Lindsay’s case, the less it feels like any lessons have been learned.”

The Foremans’ family say they entered Iran with valid visas, a licensed guide and a pre-approved itinerary, as required under Tehran’s rules.

Their son, Joe Bennett, from Folkestone, Kent is now campaigning full time for their release. He has only spoken to his mother three times in the 11 months since her arrest.

Two weeks ago, he told the BBC the pair had embarked on a hunger strike in a “cry out for help” to push for better conditions, including more phone calls and to be able to visit her husband, who is being held in a separate cell.

Both are now eating again, although Mr Bennett had been told they were looking thin. They have not yet been able to visit one another.

“My mum and Craig are British citizens. They are living in horrific conditions, isolated, kept behind bars, stripped of their human dignity,” he said in a statement.

He added the family “shouldn’t have to fight this hard just to get the basic support”.

“We need the Government to show the same determination it eventually mustered for Nazanin—now, immediately, urgently, and not years from now.”

The couple, both in their early 50s from East Sussex, are being held in separate crowded cells in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where Nazanin was imprisoned.

They have appeared in court several times but have not been officially tried – or convicted.

Another detained Iranian-British national, Anoosheh Ashoori, was returned on the same flight as Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe in 2022 after being held for five years.

The story of her detention and the campaign to release her has been developed into a BBC drama Project 951.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4 for the series earlier this week, Mr Ratcliffe recalled the “disorientation” and “trauma” of his wife’s imprisonment.

The UK government advises against all travel to Iran because of a “significant risk” of arrest, and says having a British passport or connections to the UK “can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you”.

A US and Saudi citizen who was jailed in Riyadh over tweets that were critical of the Saudi government has been allowed to return home to Florida.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi’s son said that the return of the 75-year-old retired engineer was made possible by President Donald Trump and his administration. The announcement comes one day after Trump hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House.

Mr Almadi was arrested in 2021 upon arriving in Riyadh to visit family and later found guilty of trying to destabilise the kingdom and supporting and funding terrorism.

After being sentenced to 19 years in prison, he was released early in 2023 but barred from leaving Saudi Arabia.

Mr Almadi’s family said in a statement posted on X on Wednesday that they are overjoyed that their “horrific” four-year ordeal has come to an end.

His son, Ibrahim, and the Almadi family also thanked the Trump administration’s “tireless efforts”, as well as the National Security Council and US State Department for safeguarding Mr Almadi’s return.

“This case has always been about free speech, and the courageous voices of [journalists] Josh Rogin and Steven Nelson ensured our father’s story was heard around the world,” the family said, singling out journalists for The Washington Post and The New York Post.

The family also thanked those who stood by them over the past four years: “We hope the support and care we received will continue for those still held hostage in Saudi Arabia and in other parts of the world.”

According to The New York Post, Almadi’s family said he was airborne from Riyadh as of 12:15 ET on Wednesday, just minutes after Trump and the crown prince – known by his initials MBS – appeared onstage together at an investment forum in Washington DC.

Early last month, Mr Almadi’s son posted a photo alongside Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president on national security, on X. He wrote that the US entry of MBS – Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler – this week was “contingent upon the safe return” of his father.

Mr Almadi was arrested in November 2021 upon arriving in Riyadh to visit family. He was originally sentenced to 16 years but an appeals court increased the term to 19 years.

When he was released in 2023, Mr Almadi’s son told Reuters news agency that charges had been dropped but he still faced the travel ban.

Ibrahim previously told the BBC that the only evidence presented to the court against his father consisted of 14 tweets.

The tweets, seen by BBC News at the time, included criticism of the demolition of old parts of the cities of Mecca and Jeddah, concern over poverty in the kingdom and a reference to the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

During Trump’s meeting with MBS on Tuesday, the US president came to the defence of his guest, telling reporters that the crown prince “knew nothing” about the 2018 killing of Khashoggi.

Trump’s comments appeared to contradict a US intelligence assessment in 2021 that determined the crown prince had approved the operation that led to Khashoggi’s death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

‘He just said ‘hi”

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