Realpolitik - or spineless?
The British government the highly sensitive rulers of Saudi Arabia - but on the other hand it has a to support UK nationals in difficulties abroad.
And these two motives can clash, as in the of three Britons Sandy Mitchell, Les Walker and Ron Jones, and the joint Canadian/Briton Bill Sampson, who say they were tortured several years ago in Saudi Arabia and forced to confess to bombings of which they were innocent.
In 2006 a Law Lords ruling denied the former detainees the right to sue Saudi officials for damages. They complain that the British government has been unenthusiastic about pursuing their case for compensation with the Saudi authorities.
Foreign Office documents - obtained by the 91Èȱ¬ under freedom of information - show some of the anguish of British civil servants trapped between what they called the 'realpolitik' and not wanting to appear 'shoddy' and 'spineless' in their actions over the ex-detainees.
One official wrote in June 2006: 'Whilst I recognise the realpolitik considerations to be factored into any follow-up action ..., our position must look pretty spineless to the former detainees ... We need to do something soon to reassure them that we do want to help them. So my instinct is to recommend a meeting with the FS [Foreign Secretary].'
Not all officials favoured ministerial meetings with the men. One had only wanted to meet their solicitors but another countered that 'it will look pretty shoddy given the way they were treated when they came down last year'.
This followed the fact that 'all of them traipsed down to London for what they expected to be a joint meeting with B Symons [junior Foreign Office minister Baroness Symons] and the FS last March only to be told on arrival that Ministers would not be able to see them. They are still miffed about that'.
The then Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett did agree to meet them later, but this left officials with the problem of what she was actually going to say to them. As one wrote, 'we need a strategy on where we are going with this - the FS would need to explain the realities and difficulties of raising the matter too forcefully ... and take a good deal of flak.'
A British diplomat based in Jeddah gave the Foreign Office back home this advice: 'I am sure that, having promised, Mrs Beckett must see the detainees: it would be quite wrong to back out, just because we don't have an encouraging message. She should be briefed to want the meeting to listen to their case. She should tell them that we'll have raised the case, and got no joy.'
Mrs Beckett duly told the men 'that she would look for suitable opportunities to raise the matter of compensation for the detainees but that she would only do so should she judge that action might be effective'.
The Foreign Office held back other material on various grounds, including that publishing it would 'compromise the UK's access to, and relationships with, senior Saudis' and so damage UK-Saudi relations.
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