Scot describes 'fight to survive' in Iraqi jail

A Scottish engineer who spent two months in custody in Iraq over an unpaid debt said every day was a “fight to survive”.

Brian Glendinning arrived home earlier this month after being locked up in an overcrowded prison in Baghdad.

The 43-year-old was held over a conviction he was unaware he had while working on a previous job in Qatar.

Mr Glendinning did not know he was on an Interpol wanted list until he was detained on 11 September.

The father-of-three from Kincardine, Fife, was on his way to start a new job at the time.

He told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme he was initially held in Basra before being transferred to a jail in the Iraqi capital.

There he said he was put in a “very overcrowded” holding cell which, at its peak, had more than 40 prisoners in it.

Mr Glendinning recalled: “It had guys openly talking about murdering family members. It had rapists. It had drug dealers. It had people that spoke about being part of terrorist groups.

“I was just like ‘Wow. Why have I ended up in here?'”

Mr Glendinning said he felt isolated as he did not speak Arabic but befriended a Lebanese man who spoke English.

The engineer added: “He helped me through the days but it was still mentally torturing for myself.

“He was the only one person I could kind of hang on to.

“Every day was just a fight to survive.”

Mr Glendinning admitted he feared for his safety as he witnessed Iraqi prisoners being assaulted by guards.

He added: “I didn’t sleep at night. I would sleep for a couple of hours during the day.

“It was a horrible place to be in.”

He also claimed the guards did not care for the prisoners.

Mr Glendinning added: “I seen a guy nearly dying at my feet.

“I was even shouting ‘This guy needs some help’ and the guards are laughing at the bars.

“My friend, Hussain, turned round and said ‘Brian, this happens a lot. We are the doctors.”

Mr Glendinning enjoyed an emotional reunion at Edinburgh Airport on 19 November as his family, who campaigned for his release, met him from his flight from Istanbul.

In 2017 Mr Glendinning was sentenced in his absence to two years in prison for defaulting on a debt.

He had agreed to take out a £20,000 loan with his bank in Qatar while working in Doha in 2016, but was not able to keep up full repayments when he lost his job.

His family said he was made redundant in 2017, while on sick leave at home in Scotland, but had kept in touch with the bank, not realising he had been convicted of a crime.

He only discovered the arrest warrant meant he was on an Interpol red list when he was detained at Basra airport in September.

His brother sold his car to help pay his brother’s legal bills, which within four weeks of his arrest had soared to £30,000.