Two British nurses jailed in Saudi Arabia after the murder of a colleague are to be freed with a pardon by King Fahd, his embassy said in London last night.
Lucille McLauchlan and Deborah Parry, who were jailed after the murder of an Australian, Yvonne Gilford, in 1996, should be home in the next couple of days, the Saudi ambassador, Dr Ghazi Algosaibi, said in a statement.
Dr Algosaibi's statement said: "In response to a petition from the families of the two British nurses convicted of murder in Saudi Arabia, the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, issued an order commuting the sentence of the two nurses to the period they have already spent in jail and ordering their release.
"According to the judicial laws of Saudi Arabia when the next of kin in a murder case waves the right to retribution, the court can impose a discretionary jail sentence which the king can commute.
"This is what happened in this case.
"I expect the two nurses to be back in the UK in the next couple of days."
McLauchlan (32), from Dundee, and Parry (39), from Alton, Hampshire, were charged with Ms Gilford's murder on December 24th, 1996.
The Saudi authorities said they confessed to the crime and admitted to having been involved in a lesbian relationship with Ms Gilford.
But two weeks later the women met their lawyers at Damman Central Prison, and withdrew the murder confessions, which it was later claimed were made under duress.
At the same time Mr Frank Gilford, the murdered woman's brother, told reporters in Australia he had no intention of sparing the nurses from the death penalty if they were found guilty.
In May last year, the two women appeared, wearing black robes and chains, for the start of the murder trial at the Supreme Court in Al Khobar.
In September last year, an international law firm acting for the Gilford family in the case released a statement claiming that Parry has been found guilty by the court and sentenced to death.
The statement said McLauchlan was found guilty of playing a part in Gilford's murder and sentenced to eight years in jail and 500 lashes.
But Dr Algosaibi said soon afterwards that a deal with the Gilford family had been reached and that the death penalty would not be imposed.
The deal involved a reported payment of £750,000 to the Gilford family. The "blood money" was widely rumoured to have come in part from British firms with commercial interests in Saudi Arabia.
Hopes for an early release of the two were raised in March this year and were boosted still further by the visit of the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to Saudi Arabia last month.