Letter to Marie Cottle, James Cottle's
daughter, from an officer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Thank you for your recent undated letter to the
Prime Minister, about your father, James Cottle, who is detained
in Saudi Arabia. I have been asked to reply as the desk officer
in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office dealing with the case.
Please be assured that we are doing all we can for your father.
We have made vigorous representations to the Saudi government
at the highest levels, including by the Prime Minister, FCO Ministers
and senior officials. We have kept your mother informed of these
representations when they have taken place. We will continue to
do so. But we believe that it is not in your father's interests,
or those of the other British detainees, for us to publicise these
representations.
Consular staff are allowed to visit your father
approximately every month. He has told them that he is well. They
are able to deliver the letters and cards your family has sent
to him and he is allowed to write to you, if he wishes. I can
only imagine how distressed and frustrated you and your family
must feel at this time. I am in regular contact with your mother.
I keep her informed of any developments and she lets me know of
any specific concerns your family has. Baroness Amos telephoned
your mother on I May to discuss the latest developments. We will
continue to keep in regular contact with her.
This was sent to my daughter and I thought it
was cruel of the FCO to say her dad could write if he wished,
they didn't even see a pen then as he was in solitary and we had
no word from him whatsoever, so since June 2001 he had still not
been able to write and I know and James says he would have loved
to have written to his daughter even if to reassure her as he
knew she would worry so badly. . . .
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