Paul Ride, a catering manager from east London, was working in Kuwait before he disappeared two months ago.

Last week the Red Cross tracked Mr Ride, 33, to a jail cell in Baghdad.

Diplomats believe he may have got lost in the desert and accidentally driven across the Iraqi border.

The Foreign Office has protested to Iraq about the severity of the sentence and demanded Mr Ride's release.

Efforts to gain his freedom have been hampered by the fact that Britain no longer has an embassy in Baghdad.

Releases

The Briton's case is being handled by the Russians who still have diplomatic representation in Iraq.

They were successful last year in gaining the release of a British businessman, Ian Richter, who had served five and a half years in an Iraqi jail.

Another Briton, Daphne Parrish, was also released in 1991.

But her companion, Iranian-born journalist Farzad Bazoft, was executed in 1990 after being convicted of spying.

Two days ago Mr Ride's wife, Julie, appealed to the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, to free her husband.

A spokesman from Mr Ride's employer in Kuwait, John Gibbs, said everybody at the company was "very shocked" by what had happened to Mr Ride.

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