The wife of a Carshalton businessman held by American forces in Iraq has emerged disappointed from a meeting with the Iraqi charge d’affaires, at the Iraqi embassy in London.

Kadhum Ridha Al-Sarraj, 29, was arrested on September 15 after a heart monitor he created was mistaken for a bomb.

Since then the Iraqi court has dropped all charges against Mr Al-Sarraj but US authorities have given no indication of when he will be freed, saying they must “follow procedure”.

Last week, after several months of petitioning the Iraqi embassy, Carshalton and Wallington MP Tom Brake secured a meeting with the Iraqi charge d’ affaires in the hope of speeding the process up.

But Mr Al-Sarraj’s wife Shareen Nasser, 25, a research assistant, said while Mr Abdulmuhaimen Al-Oraibi said he would ask his Iraqi counterparts about the “procedure” she was disappointed by his lack of knowledge of the case.

She said: “I am not optimistic about the meeting at the embassy – they were just saying they didn’t know the details of the case.

“How do you get anywhere when everyone just slams the door in your face?”

Mr Brake said the meeting was constructive but said the Americans were “hiding behind their procedure”.

He said: “The worst case scenario is he could be detained for years to come.”

Meanwhile, Mr Brake also brought the case to the attention of Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he asked him in Parliament last week if he would talk to the US authorities to try to secure a release date for Mr Al-Sarraj.

The PM said: “The honourable gentleman has raised the case with me; I shall look further at what he says and write to him.”

The US authorities had been tracking Mr Al-Sarraj after finding a device he had built in 2006, which he says is a cardiac monitor.

Mr Al-Sarraj, who was in Iraq to sell pacemakers, is being held at Camp Cropper, near Baghdad.

A spokesman for the American Embassy in Baghdad said: “The Iraqi legal system has ruled he has not violated Iraqi laws.

“In accordance with the January 1st Security Agreement, he will be processed for release in the order that his threat classification dictates.

“We are making every effort to be as transparent and fair in our operations as possible.”

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