IT WAS an emotion-filled day as the family of a Kincardine dad gathered outside of Holyrood to protest his imprisonment in Iraq.

Brian Glendinning has been held in Iraq for seven weeks now as he waits to be extradited to Qatar for missed payments on a £20,000 loan that he took out in 2016.

His family have been fighting to get him home since he was arrested and last week they took to the Scottish Parliament in the hopes of getting them to put pressure on the UK Government.

Speaking outside of the Parliament on Thursday, October 27, John Glendinning, Brian's little brother, told the Press: "Over two weeks ago we tried to reach out to the UK Government through our local MSP and letters were drafted up by Radha Stirling, our UK lawyer and campaigner.

"We're here today (Thursday) because the UK Government hasn't responded, they haven't listened. I've been on national news, I've been on local news and on Nigel Farage's show live so they've definitely of Brian Glendinning and his case so why? Is it that they just don't care?

"We know that the Scottish Parliament can't act but they can certainly do their part to make Westminster listen because they're not listening to us at the moment."

John revealed that in 2017, when Brian got a new job he got in touch with the Qatari bank to try and continue repayments but as he had already been convicted, without his knowledge, he received no response. He is now being held in a holding cell designed for 10 people with 43 other prisoners, some of whom are terrorists and murderers.

He continued: "Some are terrorists belonging to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and one has murdered his own father. That's the people he is next to, a man who ultimately had about four or five thousand pounds left to pay on a loan."

Friends and family took time off of work to picket and bring the attention of Scottish Government to Brian's case and the chants of "bring Brian home" seemed to work as MSP's came out to see the commotion.

Brian's older brother, Lee Glendinning said: "Up until this point I wasn't feeling too good but seeing everybody around us in support is amazing. It give's us a bit of hope, we've had people coming out from the parliament actually speaking to us who have said they're not aware of the situation but they must be because it's all over the news.

"They've dropped a few emails for us to get in touch today. I'm buzzing and hopefully it goes somewhere."

While spirits are hopeful at the protest, things have been tough for Brian and his family. His wife, Kimberly, told the Press: "I feel really overwhelmed that peoples taken time off of work to come here to try and help us. I'm a wee bit choked.

"I actually can't believe what's happening to be honest, sometimes I don't feel like it's real and it's not until I wake up at night and I can't fall back over that I think it is real. My middle daughter, she's Brian over the back, she's so deep and doesn't let on but she's had two days that have been really bad.

"My wee-est one is 12 and she was up two nights ago crying all night. I had to keep her off school and inform them of what's going on, and my son, he's trying to be strong for me. He has his own wee family, a little daughter but he's struggling as well. He's trying to make his dad proud and still go to work everyday."

Brian's family all have one message for the UK Government and they hope that the protest will help them be heard.

John's message to the Scottish Government is: " Help, help Brian, help us, pick up the phone. We know you already know about it, it's been in the media long enough so contact Westminster and apply pressure to them."