LYON (euronews) — Briton Matthew Hedges has been sentenced to life in prison in the United Arab Emirates on charges of spying. Hedges, a 31-year-old doctoral student at Durham University in the UK, has been held in the UAE since May 5 this year after he was arrested at Dubai airport.

Euronews spoke to his wife on October 25. She said her husband had been finalising his PhD studies in the UAE and his thesis was focused on the impact of the Arab Spring. He had been interviewing people from a cross-section of society, she said. According to Durham University’s website, Hedges research interests included civil-military relations, political economy, and tribalism. Last year, he co-authored an article in an academic journal on the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which the UAE is a member.