Royal Navy sailor, 22, jailed in brutal Bahrain prison after ‘trying to break up fight’

A Royal Navy Sailor has been locked up in a notorious Bahrain jail after ‘stepping in to break up a fight’.

Owen Haggerty, 22 from Renfrewshire, will now spend three months behind bars after a judge gave the sailor a custodial sentence for physical assault.

The family are ‘distraught’ by the ‘miscarriage of justice’ and fear their boy is now being housed ‘alongside murderers and the worst criminals’.

Owen was planning to fly home on February 15 after four months on duty in Bahrain, when an incident saw him arrested by authorities the day before.

Mum Kirsty claims CCTV images showed Owen was trying to break up a Valentine’s Day fight between two others.

She told STV News: ‘He was due home on February 15 but I got a phone call the day before from a Navy officer who said Owen had been arrested in the early hours of the morning for physical assault.

‘It’s the last thing I was expecting from Owen. He’s definitely not a fighter and never gets into trouble so I’m a bit shocked.

‘Initially they said he would be fined and released but then he was detained for seven days.

‘I phoned his mobile on the 15th and he said “mum, I’ve done nothing wrong, I tried to calm down a situation that had got out of hand”.’

Owen was kept in a detention centre for five weeks before a judge decided to sentence him to 12 weeks in prison.

‘His brother Jack travelled over to Bahrain to support him in court but it was all over in about ten seconds and the judge sentenced Owen to 12 weeks in prison,’ Kirsty added.

An ex-Celtic football star has joined the family’s campaign to release the sailor.

Jack Hendry is close friends with Owen’s brother and is signed with Saudi Arabian team Al-Ettifaq.

He is using his connections in the Middle East to try free Owen and is providing aid to the devastated family.

Their fears have been compounded by Owen’s detention in Al Hidd prison.

Human rights campaigners have previously warned about abusive conditions within the jail, including claims that 12 prisoners share a cell and go to the toilet in a hole in the ground in front of each other.

Owen has to rely on fellow prisoner to translate for him behind bars and is given a diet of chicken and rice at Al Hidd, the Scottish Sun reports.

A Royal Navy Spokesperson said: ‘The welfare of our people is a top priority which is why we are continuing to support a member of the Royal Navy detained in Bahrain as well as his family. 

‘We are working with the British Embassy in Bahrain and in regular contact with Bahrain’s law enforcement authorities.

‘Regular visits have been made to the individual by the chain of command, colleagues and consular officials to provide support.’

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British national detained in Bahrain’.

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