A former Foreign Office minister has been investigated over his links with an Arab chief of police, who is accused in an investigation by The Mail of torturing a UK citizen.
Tory grandee Alistair Burt was named in a leaked document as someone who could help United Arab Emirates’ Major General Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi become the head of Interpol.
Project Associates (PA), a British lobby company hired to promote Al-Raisi, identified Mr Burt as a ‘key figure’ it could ‘reach out to’.

Tory grandee Alistair Burt was named in a leaked document as someone who could help United Arab Emirates’ Major General Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi become the head of Interpol
A PA spokesman said the document was ‘a proposal which sets out a number of potential activities, many of which had not taken place’.
Now the Parliamentary Ombudsman is investigating our revelation as part of a probe into the Foreign Office’s response to the detention of British academic Matthew Hedges.
Al-Raisi was apparently involved in his arrest, torture and detention in the UAE.
The student was kept in isolation confinement for almost six months in 2018, and Mr Burt, the then Middle East minister, was at forefront of the Foreign Office response.
After his release, Mr Hedges made a complaint to an Ombudsman about why British consular officials failed to visit him for seven week.
He later looked at Mr Burt’s ties to the UAE after it was revealed he became chairman of the Emirates Foundation – set up to improve ties between the UAE and Britain – after leaving the Foreign Office in 2019.

Now the Parliamentary Ombudsman is investigating our revelation as part of a probe into the Foreign Office’s response to the detention of British academic Matthew Hedges
Mr Hedges told the Mail he believes Mr Burt was ‘part of a process which contributed to my detention’.
An FCDO spokesman said: ‘FCDO staff and ministers worked incredibly hard on Matthew’s case and were delighted he was able to return to the UK.’
Both Mr Burt as well as the Parliamentary Ombudsman were unable to comment.