THE King of Bahrain has granted a royal pardon to a 22-year-old Brit sailor who was wrongfully thrown behind bars for breaking up a fight.
Owen Haggerty, a Royal Navy sailor, received a three-month sentence in a harsh prison in the Middle East, where he was surrounded by “murderers and rapists.” During this challenging period, his mother’s desperate plea reached the King.
Worried-sick mum Kirsty Reynolds wrote a letter to the Arab King, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, begging for a royal pardon for her son.
She “burst out crying” when she got the miraculous news of the monarch’s mercy.
Reynolds told the Daily Record: “I can’t stop shaking.
“It is unbelievable news, it is just such a massive hurdle that we have overcome in the fight to bring Owen home.”
The mum explained the dramatic moment she was informed.
“I opened up my laptop and it said ‘urgent call for Owen Haggerty’,” she said.
“My case worker came up and she said I’ve got some great news.
“I just burst out crying right away I was just in disbelief.
“I sent a letter last Monday and today we have a royal pardon.”
The family’s local MP Johanna Baxter said she was “very pleased that he has been granted a royal pardon by the King of Bahrain”.
Ms Baxter, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, raised the topic in parliament on Thursday.
She said in the Commons that “no-one” from the UK Government would speak to her when the helpless mum’s son was ruthlessly locked away.
His mother expressed her frustrations by sharing, “No one was willing to communicate with me regarding his well-being or the progress of his case. This lack of information was attributed to the fact that 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.”
Haggerty, from Johnstone, Renfrewshire, will be released after he was thrown in jail for trying to break up a street brawl last month.
At the time of his detention, he was jut a day away from finishing his deployment in the Middle East.
The young sailor, who was always keen to travel and explore, joined the Royal Navy in 2021 and left for his first deployment in Bahrain last October.
He told his mum he was “having the time of his life” – before he was ruthlessly chucked into a detention centre.
In his extremely short 10-second sentence, he was sentenced to three months inside the brutal Hidd prison.
Owen’s older brother Jack had also flown to Bahrain to support him during his difficult hearing.
His family said the sailor wasn’t even allowed to defend himself in court.
The family spent at least £4,000 on lawyers when they were attempting to bring their “terrified” son back home.
Kirsty added: “The case worker told us just to hang fire just now – there are a few things that need to go through at the prison.
“Before the royal pardon the Navy said that they would be keen to get him back and check him over.
“Everyone has just kept pushing.
“We’ve never given up on getting Owen out of prison.”
