Family’s plea to spare grandfather 350 lashes

The daughter of a 74-year-old British grandfather facing 350 lashes in Saudi Arabia has lauded prime minister David Cameron’s decision to appeal to officials to stop the flogging.

Karl Andree, who has battled cancer and suffers from asthma, was arrested in Jeddah in August last year after bottles of home-made wine were discovered in his car by police.

As Cameron raised concerns about the threatened lashing, Number 10 announced the Government will not be proceeding with a bid to sell the Ministry of Justice’s expertise to the prison service in Saudi Arabia.

Kirsten Piroth, Andree’s daughter, said she was not even sure her father knew about Cameron’s intervention yet.

Piroth said: “I don’t know if he knows yet. The reason for this was because we were hoping the Government would get involved. We just wanted something to happen and if it takes the prime minister to write a letter then that’s great.”

Ministers had been under intense pressure to scrap the proposal for a £5.9m training programme in the light of several controversial cases in the state.

Downing Street said Cameron was intervening in the “extremely concerning” case of Andree, who has been told he could face a public flogging, which his family fear could kill him.