After bringing a prohibited satellite phone to a yoga retreat, a top British official of the oil company Saudi Aramco reportedly had to spend nearly a week in a jail in Chamoli, Uttarakhand. According to the UK’s Financial Times, Fergus MacLeod, the head of investor relations at Saudi Aramco, was freed after paying a Rs 1,000 fine.
According to the report, MacLeod, who was arrested on July 12 from a hotel, claimed he was not aware of the ban, which was put in place after terrorists used such devices to attack Mumbai in 2008. The 62-year-old MacLeod was then taken to a prison, where he was held ‘in a communal cell with long-term prisoners who had committed very serious crimes.’
MacLeod was detained at Chamoli until July 18. The executive claimed he received good treatment throughout the event. He had been on holiday with friends, including several Saudi Aramco colleagues. Although he claimed not to have used it, MacLeod allegedly turned on and off the satellite phone in his hotel room.
The satellite phone, which MacLeod told the newspaper he had purchased in the UK in 2017, was something he typically used when travelling in rural areas of Saudi Arabia in case of an emergency in a place with a poor mobile signal. Oxford-educated MacLeod has had positions in the banking and energy sectors, including at Deutsche Bank.
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