Family
expresses relief after launching campaign to free Ray Cole, 69, who was
arrested at bus stop with local man
The Guardian, Patrick Strudwick, Tuesday 7 October 2014
The British tourist held in a Moroccan prison after being arrested for “homosexual acts” has been released and is on his way home to Britain.
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| Ray Cole, pictured with his son Adrian, was forced to sleep on a concrete floor in the Morocco prison. Photograph: PA |
The British tourist held in a Moroccan prison after being arrested for “homosexual acts” has been released and is on his way home to Britain.
Ray Cole’s
son Adrian told the Guardian on Tuesday: “It’s all happened much quicker than
we could have ever hoped. I just received a call from the consulate saying he
is about to board a British Airways flight to London.
“We are
incredibly relieved. It seems as though the authorities there responded to the
fact that we had gone through all the proper channels, lodging an appeal and
working with the ambassador.”
A statement
released by the family said Cole, 69, was boarding a flight from Marrakech. “We
would like to thank everyone here and in Morocco who has helped our campaign to
secure the release of our wonderful father. And we would like to thank the
Moroccan authorities for showing clemency and compassion.”
Cole was
arrested on 18 September at a bus stop in Marrakech with Jamal Jam Wald Nass, a
local man in his 20s with whom Cole had struck up a relationship online several
months previously. It was Cole’s second visit to the north African country,
after a two-week trip in the spring, and he had planned to stay for five weeks
on another sightseeing trip with Nass.
But after
posting daily updates on his Facebook page of their visits to souks and other
tourist attractions, Cole’s messages both on social media and to his family in
Kent and Berkshire stopped. Approached by police who, for reasons that remain
unclear, suspected him of homosexuality, Cole was arrested and detained along
with Nass.
In custody,
the Moroccan authorities found a photo on his phone purportedly providing
evidence of “homosexual acts”, which are illegal in the predominantly Muslim
country. They then investigated his Facebook page and email account in search
of corroborating evidence.
Concerned
by the lack of contact, Cole’s family contacted the Foreign Office. Interpol
and the consulate investigated Cole’s whereabouts for several days until the
Moroccan authorities told them of his location in prison.
After an
initial trial was adjourned because Cole had neither legal representation nor a
translator, he was eventually tried and found guilty of “homosexual acts” on 2
October, as his family watched from the court. Both he and Nass were sentenced
to four months in prison.
Adrian Cole
said on Monday that he had launched a campaign for his retired father’s release
amid concerns over his health – including a history of heart conditions and a
stroke – and the “chaotic” trial and stark prison conditions. Cole, who
volunteers as a driver taking elderly people to hospital in his home town of
Deal, in Kent, was forced to sleep on a concrete floor throughout his time in
prison.
The family
set up an online petition for his release and a crowdfunding page to help pay
the legal and translator fees. An appeal was lodged last week, which the family
had been expecting to take place in several weeks’ time.
The gay
rights campaigner Peter Tatchell described the arrest of a British tourist on
such charges as “extremely unusual”.
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