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Rhys Davies features in The Guardian on 26 November 2024

The article was first published in The Guardian on 26 November 2024 and can be read in full, here.

Barrister Rhys Davies was featured in The Guardian’s explainer on British citizens arbitrarily detained abroad, specifically on the case of Ryan Cornelius who has been detained in the UAE since 2008.

Ryan Cornelius, the United Arab Emirates

More than 16 years have passed since Ryan Cornelius, a British property developer, was arrested at Dubai airport. He is now 70, and his family is furious about the UK government’s response to his case.

Cornelius was charged in 2010 with defrauding the Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) and sentenced to 10 years in prison in the UAE.

Two months before his release date in 2018, he was served with another 20-year sentence – based on a UAE law brought in after his initial sentencing – until $430m in alleged debt was settled. Before his detention, Cornelius, who had business projects in Bahrain, Dubai and Pakistan, had been repaying instalments on a $500m DIB loan.

At the start of his imprisonment, he was held in solitary confinement for weeks, and he later contracted tuberculosis while in jail, which went untreated for 18 months, his family said.

A meeting this year with the Conservative foreign secretary David Cameron, who raised Cornelius’s case with UAE officials, made them hopeful for the first time of his release. But meetings with officials from the new Labour government have upset and disappointed them.

The businessman’s lawyer, Rhys Davies, said: “David Cameron’s intervention was an absolute game changer. Since the new government’s come in it’s gone in completely the opposite direction.”

“Their job is to stand up for the rights of British citizens, that should be their number one priority and I just don’t think they’re doing that. Ryan should have been released earlier this year, there’s no doubt about it.”

Rhys Davies is a barrister at Temple Garden Chambers specializing in international criminal law and human rights law. He has represented clients in numerous high-profile cases, including those involving torture, extradition, and Interpol Red Notices.

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About the Authors

Ben Keith Barrister

Ben Keith is a co-founder of IHR Advisors and an internationally recognised lawyer specialising in INTERPOL Red Notice challenges, extradition, international human rights law and asylum. He is the co-author of Interpol, Law and Practice (Sweet & Maxwell, 2026). He is co-editor of Red Notice Monitor, the leading public resource on INTERPOL Red Notice abuse and the practice of INTERPOL’s Commission for the Control of Files.

Ben represents clients across every region in INTERPOL Red Notice and Diffusion challenges before the Commission for the Control of Files. He has secured the deletion of Notices issued by states including Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Belarus, Iran and Venezuela, in cases involving journalists, opposition political figures, refugees, human rights defenders and business figures targeted in commercial and political disputes. He is the author of the INTERPOL chapter in The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations (Global Investigations Review, 2026).

Ben has appeared as counsel before the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber, the UK Supreme Court, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the UN Committee Against Torture. He is a member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court and the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

He regularly acts for politically exposed persons, journalists, human rights defenders and high net worth individuals facing extradition, INTERPOL Notices and other instruments of transnational repression. He provides legal commentary to national and international media including the Guardian, The Times, the Financial Times, The Telegraph, the BBC, Sky News, CNN, CBS 60 Minutes, The Economist, Politico and Al Jazeera.

Ben is ranked Star Individual in Chambers and Partners and a leading individual in The Legal 500 for extradition. He practises from 5 St Andrew’s Hill in London.

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Rhys Davies Barrister

Rhys Davies is a co-founder of IHR Advisors and an internationally recognised lawyer specialising in INTERPOL Red Notice challenges, international criminal law and international human rights law. He is the co-author of Interpol, Law and Practice (Sweet & Maxwell, 2026). He is co-editor of Red Notice Monitor, the leading public resource on INTERPOL Red Notice abuse and the practice of INTERPOL’s Commission for the Control of Files.

Rhys co-authored the report Undue Influence: the UAE and INTERPOL with Sir David Calvert-Smith, examining the systemic misuse of INTERPOL’s Notice and Diffusion systems by the United Arab Emirates and the implications for INTERPOL’s governance. He represents clients in INTERPOL Red Notice challenges before the Commission for the Control of Files, with particular focus on cases involving Middle Eastern and Central Asian states, and on the position of refugees, journalists and political dissidents targeted through INTERPOL by their states of origin.

Rhys has significant experience of in-country legal advice and assistance, most recently in the West Bank, and a specific interest in the Middle East. He is a member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He regularly speaks at, and chairs, events at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and at the House of Commons on matters of international law.

Rhys is the author of numerous articles on INTERPOL Red Notice practice and on justice in the Middle East, and is in demand as a commentator on international human rights. He provides legal commentary to national and international media including The Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Financial Times, CBS 60 Minutes, Sky News, City AM and Al Jazeera.

Rhys is recommended as a leading individual in The Legal 500. He practises from Temple Garden Chambers in London and The Hague.

View Rhys Davies's profile