Katie Price’s husband Lee Andrews was arrested over a ‘private civil matter’ despite claims he was detained for espionage, new reports have ‘revealed’.
The Daily Mail revealed on Saturday that Lee had been arrested and is locked up in a Dubai prison, according to his father, which Katie debunked at the time.
Katie has since shared the two-minute phone call she shared with Lee from the notorious Al Awir prison.
The prison – less than 20 miles from the city’s shiny centre – has been described as ‘hell on earth’ and houses murderers, terrorists and rapists.
During their first conversation since his disappearance, Lee told Katie that he was arrested and detained on suspicion of spying.
However, The Sun now understands Lee was detained over claims relating to a private civil matter.
The publication claims authorities confirmed that he was not held over spying charges.
Katie Price’s husband Lee Andrews was arrested over a ‘private civil matter’ despite claims he was detained for espionage, new reports have ‘revealed’
It is understood Lee was arrested on Wednesday 14th May after previously hiding out and keeping a deliberately low profile.
Lee must now pay a four-figure fine, and is expected to be released on Monday.
Katie revealed what she said to Lee during their first conversation after he was arrested.
‘I told him how worried I had been and told him I loved him. It was very rushed, but he said the authorities out there thought he was a spy. I don’t know much more than that right now,’ she told The Sun.
The Foreign Office today refused to confirm or deny whether Lee was being held in Dubai’s notorious Al Awir prison.
However a spokesman repeated an earlier statement saying that UK consular officials were ‘supporting the family’ of a British man and were ‘in contact with officials’ in the UAE about his whereabouts.
An FCDO spokesperson said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British man and are in contact with the local authorities.’
Lee had vanished 11 days before we revealed he was discovered in a prison, after sending Katie a video of him hooded with his hands tied after being ‘bundled into a van’ and taken to a ‘black site’, as he tried to make his way to London to be with her.
He sent a series of texts and voice messages to the mother-of-five, claiming he had been kidnapped. It is understood Lee was arrested on Thursday, May 14.
It came soon after Lee’s dad, Peter, reportedly text Katie to explain where Lee was and later set up a phone call with him from the prison call box.
According to the publication, Lee had been keeping a low profile in the days before his arrest and had moved his belongings out of his apartment and into his dad’s.
An insider has claimed that Lee will be released on Monday after paying the authorities a four-figure fine.
Katie has since shared the two-minute phone call she shared with Lee from the notorious Al Awir prison
Al Awir Central, nicknamed Dubai’s Alcatraz, is notorious for its brutal conditions, with inmates tortured for confessions and suffering from horrific illnesses.
Dangerous prisoners are kept in unsanitary and overcrowded cells, alongside expats, including British citizens, many who are held without formal charges or coerced into making confessions.
Lee is now facing what former detainees have described as inhumane conditions, where up to 15 men are forced to share a single room, sleeping on bunk beds and the floor.
Katie shared her devastation in the days after Lee first went missing and she couldn’t contact her husband, who she married in January after a week-long romance.
His family, who also said they were unable to contact Lee, filed a missing person’s report at the British embassy.
Over the weekend, his long-suffering father Peter – who is one of the few people in Dubai to support him – told the Daily Mail Lee was arrested by the UAE authorities.
The businessman said: ‘Lee is OK. He has not been kidnapped but he is under arrest. I don’t know on what charge. I’m not sure where he is being held. But he will call me later today. He is not at my house.’
A police source said: ‘Lee Andrews has been arrested.’
The Daily Mail were dispatched to Dubai earlier this week after Katie announced her fourth husband was ‘missing’ and that she was concerned about his safety.
The British Foreign Office were alerted but their staff in Dubai were unable to find any trace of him at the time.
A spokesperson said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British man and are in contact with the local authorities.’
The Dubai authorities also then denied any knowledge of his whereabouts.
Lee has lived in Dubai for 20 years and it is where he and Katie got married
There was no sign of Lee at his last known address in the run-down Satwa district of the city.
He had lived there with his father Peter before becoming involved with Katie.
On Wednesday morning, Indian migrant workers were renovating the modest bungalow as the temperature soared to 40C.
The letting agent involved with the property revealed how the father and son pair had moved out months ago.
She said: ‘Mr Andrews moved out of the property about four months ago.’
Lee, who has lived in Dubai for the past 20 years, has become a well-recognised bodybuilder in the city state.
But inquiries about his welfare at the many training gyms and boxing clubs that Andrews attends were fruitless.
Staff at his favourite exercise camp, Top Gym, in the sought-after Jumeirah Palm district, said he had not been there for four weeks.
One said: ‘Yes, we all know Lee. He comes here a lot. He brought his wife here recently. She is a slim lady with black hair. But he has not been here since the third week of April.’
An expat trainer at another gym nearby added: ‘Andrews is also strutting about the Palm [Jumeriah].
‘I’ve had to warn a couple of clients not to get too involved with him. He is a very shady person.’
It also remains unexplained how Lee was able to become involved with another woman on Instagram – glamorous American woman Mari Sol – while he is being held in custody.
But his father Peter, who runs an insulation and air conditioning firm based in the Al Quoz district of the city, told the Daily Mail that Lee has been detained.
He said: ‘Lee has been arrested. I don’t know on what charge. But he will call me tonight. So hopefully I will find out more.’
And the chief of Dubai Police has confirmed that he is the subject of a number of arrest warrants, mainly for fraud.
Brigadier Khalid Khalifa al Avadhi told the Daily Mail: ‘There are many cases against him.’
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