Karl Andree: Calls for David Cameron to save British grandfather from Saudi Arabia lashes 'death sentence'

David Cameron is facing urgent calls to intervene in the case of a British grandfather who has been condemned to more than 350 lashes in Saudi Arabia – a punishment his family says amounts to an effective “death sentence”.

Karl Andree, an oil executive who has been working in the kingdom for 25 years, was stopped by the Saudi police with bottles of homemade wine in the back of his car.

He has already served a 12-month jail sentence under strict Saudi laws banning alcohol, but his family have decided to go public with their appeal over fears his ill health means the lashes could kill him.

Mr Andree’s son Simon told BBC Radio 4 Today: “He’s not a young man any more, he’s had cancer three times, he suffers from severe asthma. He’s an old, frail man, and I fear this lashing sentence is potentially a death sentence for him.”

Simon, 44, was sceptical of the Foreign Office’s claims it had made “regular” visits to Mr Andree in jail, saying that at one point his father went six months without seeing anyone from the Jeddah consulate.

He said he believed his father was “at the bottom of the list” of Britain’s interests in Saudi Arabia, behind business interests with the Middle East ally.

And speaking last night, he called on the Prime Minister to take up the matter at the highest level.

“We implore David Cameron to personally intervene and help get our father home,” he said. “The Saudi government will only listen to him.”

Downing Street is yet to comment on calls for Mr Cameron to make a personal intervention, but a statement is expected later on Tuesday.

Mr Andree’s daughter, Kirsten Piroth, 45, told the BBC her father "would not survive" the punishment lashes. She said the family had been “led to believe” by the Saudi authorities that the lashes would not be given due to her father’s ill health and age.

But after a staff change at the jail in Jeddah where Mr Andree is being held, there now “seems to be some question mark” over that.

“He's got a great spirit but his bodily health is not great and I just feel like he received his sentence and he did his time and I just want him home now.”

Asked if she was happy with the help given by UK authorities, she said: “I don't really understand why it's taking so long because it's my understanding in that system that it needs... a phone call to the right person and he could be released.”

The Andree family is understood to have met Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood last month, but they are not clear on whether an official request for clemency has yet been made.

In a statement last night, the Foreign Office said: “Our embassy staff are continuing to assist Mr Andree, including regular visits to check on his welfare, and frequent contact with his lawyer and family.

“Ministers and senior officials have raised Mr Andree's case with the Saudi government and we are actively seeking his release as soon as possible.”

Mr Cameron has recently faced calls to intervene in Saudi Arabia on another case, that of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, a juvenile offender sentenced to death in the kingdom. The al-Nimr verdict was raised by Jeremy Corbyn in his keynote Labour conference address last month.

Saudi Arabia is widely regarded as having one of the worst human rights records in the world.

Recent figures published by human rights charity Amnesty International showed that Saudi Arabia executed at least 175 people between August 2014 and 2015.

Since 1985, the state has executed at least 2,208 people, 48.5 per cent of whom were foreign nationals.