A young Renfrewshire sailor who was jailed in Bahrain has finally returned to Glasgow after being freed from prison following a royal pardon.
Owen Haggerty from Johnstone, Renfrewshire, landed back in Scotland on Friday night after he was jailed in the Middle East for trying to stop a street brawl in February. The 22-year-old, who works for the Royal Navy, was sentenced to three months in prison.
But his conviction was excused after Owen's mum, Kirsty Reynolds wrote to the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, asking for a royal pardon for her son, the Record reports.
Sharing the news on Facebook moments after her son's arrival, the 41-year-old said: "I'm overjoyed to let you all know Owen is finally home after this horrible nightmare. Words can't express our relief and gratitude as we welcome him back into our arms.
"Thank you all for your support, love, and prayers during this challenging time. We are looking forward to healing and moving forward.
"P.s. the tash has gone but might grow it back as he rather liked it."
A video shared by Kirsty shows the pair in a warming embrace after Owen passed border control. Owen, an able seaman, was on his first deployment in Bahrain when the incident happened on February 14.
Kirsty, who has seen a case file on the incident, says it involved an Egyptian couple who have since returned home. She said police found Owen at the scene, who had been trying to help, and had tried to return Owen to an American naval base before taking him to jail.
The mum previously said of the ordeal : “He stayed there to try and make sure everything was ok because that’s the type of person he is and they’ve pulled him in. They examined him and he had no marks on him - nothing.
“Owen told me he was shown CCTV and it quite clearly shows him pulling the boy off the guy and that wasn’t mentioned in the court. I have a 75 page case file and it took me hours to translate it all from Arabic to English.
“He was due home the next day but I got a phone call form his navy officer informing me of what had happened. I’ll never forget it.”
Kirsty said she was told by navy chiefs that Owen’s detainment is a civilian matter because it happened off base. She was forced to spend thousands of pounds hiring her own lawyer.
She said: “His passing out was two years ago. This was his first deployment and he was based down in Faslane before. I hadn’t spoken out previously because I was just trying to do what I could to help him but can’t do this on my own anymore. I need help.”
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Following his royal pardon, Paisley and Renfrewshire South Labour MP Johanna Baxter said she was "very pleased" that he had been excused. She said the news would be a "a tremendous relief" for Mr Haggerty's family, friends, and colleagues.
However, during a business questions session in Westminster last month, Ms Baxter told the Commons no-one from the UK Government would speak with her about the case when Mr Haggerty was in prison.
She told MPs: "No-one would engage with me to inform me of his welfare or the current status of his case, and that was because apparently I did not have his explicit consent. He was sitting in a jail in Bahrain. I had his mother's consent. She was also a constituent, and yet still nobody would speak to me."
A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokeswoman said: "We are supporting the family of a British national detained in Bahrain. "
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