The ordeal of six Britons held in solitary confinement for more than two years in Saudi Arabia amid allegations of torture and serious human rights abuses by the UK's chief middle eastern ally ended yesterday when they arrived back in Britain.
The fate of the men, who were accused of carrying out a wave of anti-western terrorist bombings that left one Briton dead and several others injured, threatened to derail relations between the two countries at a time of unprecedented tension between the west and the Arab world.
The release of the men, two of whom faced the death penalty, is the climax of months of secret negotiations between London and Riyadh designed to ensure that the authoritarian Saudi regime did not lose face despite mounting evidence of the men's innocence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1015199,00.html