Ron Jones was injured in a Riyadh bombing in March 2001

Ron Jones, from Crawley in West Sussex, is suing the Saudi Government and his alleged chief interrogator for damages and �2 million in lost earnings.

Mr Jones, originally from Scotland, was injured when a bomb exploded outside a bookshop in Riyadh in March 2001.

He was treated for shrapnel wounds in hospital, but instead of being released he says he was taken to a police station and imprisoned for 67 days, where he claims he was tortured before being released.

On Friday, counsel for the Saudi Government, Joanna Pollard, applied to have the legal action, the first in which an individual has sued a government, "struck out".

English courts did not have "jurisdiction over a foreign sovereign state", she told senior High Court official Master Whitaker.

And because the alleged torture happened in Saudi Arabia that was "the end of the matter".

Bitter end

Before the hearing, Mr Jones said: "I am fighting the strike-out application.

"It seems to me that the Saudi Government has more protection under English law than I have.

"This is not justice. I will fight this case to the bitter end."

Mr Jones said he confessed to the bombings because the torture in prison was unbearable.

'Life ruined'

He claims he was then told the authorities knew he was innocent.

He said he was ordered to apologise to the King and the people of Saudi Arabia for making a false confession and then freed.

As the authorities kept his passport, it was another three months before he returned to the UK.

Mr Jones' says his ordeal has left him with debilitating injuries to his hands and feet, meaning he cannot work - or even walk properly.

"If the government won't stand up and shout about what is happening, then I will," Mr Jones said.

Mr Jones, originally from Hamilton, Lanarkshire, had been working as a tax advisor for a petrochemical firm in Saudi when the bombs exploded.