A man is preparing a last-ditch appeal for £2.5 million in damages for his 67-day jail ordeal in Saudi Arabia.

Ron Jones, a tax adviser from Crawley, says he was blindfolded, shackled, beaten and forced to confess to a bombing in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Last year the High Court ruled he could not bid for compensation because the Saudi authorities had state immunity in the UK.

His legal team will argue against that decision at London's Court of Appeal tomorrow and Wednesday.

Father-of-one Mr Jones, 50, had been working for a Saudi petroleum firm when he was injured in a bombing in March 2001 and woke in hospital to find himself accused of the crime.

He spent 67 days in prison before being suddenly released and sent back to Britain.

He has filed two writs against the Saudi Interior Ministry and his alleged torturer.

Mr Jones believes the 1978 State Immunity Act, which protects foreign governments from being sued in British courts, has been superseded by the 1998 Human Rights Act.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs told Mr Jones in January it did not believe the two Acts were incompatible.