A tax adviser who says he was tortured while jailed in Saudi Arabia is about to discover whether he can go ahead with his legal claim for £2 million damages.

Ron Jones, from Crawley, will be at the High Court next month for a hearing to decide whether his case against the Saudi government should continue.

Mr Jones says he was blindfolded, shackled and handcuffed during his 67-day prison spell and had his hands and feet caned and beaten with a pickaxe handle.

He was made to confess to planting a terrorist bomb in the Saudi capital Riyadh, a crime he did not commit.

After being released on May 23, 2001, he issued a writ against the Saudi interior ministry and Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Aziz, the man in charge there.

Mr Jones and his wife Sandra are looking forward to finally having their day in court, two years to the day after his release.

The hearing will decide whether Mr Jones can bring a case in this country. Lawyers for the Saudi authorities have disputed that Britain has the right to jurisdiction.

Mrs Jones said: "If we win on May 23, we should be able to get a court date fairly quickly for the full case.

"If we're not successful, it's not the end of the road. We can go to the Appeals Court, the House of Lords, the European Court of Human Rights. But that will be dragging it out for even longer, which we don't want.

"The trial has to be here. We wouldn't stand a chance of getting a trial in Saudi Arabia. My husband would never go back to that country again anyway."

Mr Jones had travelled to Riyadh in December 2000 to start working as an accountant for a Saudi-owned firm. His wife and son were due to join him the following April.

He was injured and lost consciousness when a bomb exploded in a nearby bin on March 15, 2001. He woke to find a police guard around him.

He was then kept in police cells in solitary confinement and interrogated, while suffering tortures such as sleep deprivation and regular beatings.

He said he signed a confession to escape further torture and was suddenly released without explanation.

He and his family have been receiving regular counselling for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mrs Jones said: "We are coming to terms with it. Please God, we win - not for financial reasons but because someone has to stop what's going on.

"People are in prison for no reason, like Ron was."