A disturbing story involving a former highly-decorated British Royal Marine has played out for the last seven months and it’s only now becoming public knowledge.
Lance Corporal Matt Croucher, 40, was thrown into a cramped, unsanitary Dubai prison and after release had his passport confiscated, leaving him stranded in the UAE.
But, his family and friends allege, he has been told next to nothing about the case against him.
Croucher received the George Cross after jumping on a Taliban grenade to save his colleagues, during a combat patrol in Afghanistan.
The lance corporal survived the blast, with his backpack and armored vest taking the brunt of the shrapnel.
Croucher, who is now a security consultant based out of the UK, lived in Dubai from 2014 to 2021, when he was working with authorities on ‘security related matters’.
He was arrested back November 4, accused of ‘intentionally and illegally accessing a telecommunications network’.
Who the authorities claim he was spying on, and who he was supposedly working for, they have reportedly not publicly said.
Daily Mail reported:
“Officials reportedly obtained an electronic device, which Croucher claimed was used in his day-to-day job for security penetration testing, after obtaining a warrant to search where he was living.
He was forced to sleep on the floor while in prison as it was so overcrowded, according to a close friend who added he was also made to eat a ‘primitive meal of rice and chicken twice a day with very unsanitary amenities’.
The friend claimed he was interrogated by Dubai’s police Criminal Investigation Department for six hours, during which he was questioned about his role within the UK’s Ministry of Defense and intelligence services.”
After four days in prison, Croucher was but his phone, passport and internet banking access device remain all confiscated, so he is now stuck in the country with no money.
He has to weekly report to the Al Barsha police station, were continuously tell him that ‘his situation will be resolved next week’.
His family says that the UK Foreign Office has been useless.
Croucher’s friend: “‘He was only due to be passing through the country for a few days to catch up with friends before returning to the UK.’
[…] A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: ‘We are supporting a British man in the UAE and are in contact with the local authorities’.”
