The British planespotters who spent two months in jail in the UAE are now free men and are due back in the UK later this week, their families have told media in the UK.
Conrad Clitheroe, Gary Cooper and Neil Munro were arrested on February 21 near Fujairah Airport while on a planespotting trip and spent eight weeks in prison in Dubai and Abu Dhabi before being released on Wednesday.
Clitheroe’s wife Valerie told the Manchester Evening News, her local newspaper, that the men are expected to get a flight home from Dubai on Thursday or Friday.
She told the paper: “I am absolutely ecstatic. Apart from our wedding and the birth of my children this is the best day of my life.
“I just can’t wait to see him, to hug him, to hold him. We got a call from the lawyer at 10am today to tell us he’d been in court and the case had been dropped.”
They attracted suspicion and were taken to a police station for questioning. Ciltheroe and Cooper were due to fly home on the day they were arrested. After being initially told they would be released, the matter was escalated to one of national security.
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