Historian Antony Beevor and journalist Frank Gardner have announced they will not attend the Dubai Lit Fest in protest
Several UK authors are reconsidering invitations to attend a United Arab Emirates literary festival after a British academic was jailed for life this week for alleged spying, with historian Antony Beevor and BBC journalist Frank Gardner confirming their withdrawal.
Serious concerns about the safety of British academics and writers were raised after Durham University PhD student Matthew Hedges was charged with espionage and sentenced. He was in the UAE to conduct research for his thesis on civil-military relations in the region after the Arab spring, and has been held in solitary confinement for the last five months.
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