A former teacher at the Duchess of Cambridge’s old public school has been jailed in the United Arab Emirates for sending “an electronic insult” on social media.
Christian Wilke, 39, is being kept in “filthy and conditions” in a prison in the UAE after a trial held entirely in Arabic, which he doesn’t understand, his mother has claimed.
“The conditions in Al Ain are cruel. He’s barely being fed and has lost 18 kilos of weight,” Wilke-Breitsameter wrote in a Change.org petition calling for his release. “My son has been struggling to survive for months.”
“There are rats running around and cockroaches in the food. Being there he developed pneumonia and was denied adequate medical care. His blanket has not been changed for four months. He was put under pressure and sleep deprivation. The light was switched on for four weeks when he was in pre-trial detention. During the day it is too hot in prison and during the night it is too cold.”
Wilke-Breitsameter says her son was denied a lawyer for 52 days and could not contact anyone outside prison until Christmas. She says his entire trial was conducted in Arabic, which he does not understand.
“As we now know he was sentenced to one year imprisonment and the equivalent of €12,500 (£11,175/US$15,500) in punishment for an ‘electronic insult,’” she told the Mirror. “That can be anything. A five-year-old Facebook post which the government classifies as critical.”
Wilke, who has dual British and German nationality, worked in England as an IT teacher at various schools, including Downe House – where the Duchess of Cambridge went to school – until 15 months ago.
Mrs Wilke-Breitsameter has now launched a petition on the platform ‘Change.org’ , in which she called on the German Federal Government of Germany and the Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to help free her son. 35,000 people have signed up so far.
The German Embassy last night said it was providing consular assistance to Christian Wilke in the UAE but said it could not give any further details about the case.
Source Credit: RT
