A businessman trapped in the Persian Gulf for nearly four years is finally being allowed home to Northern Ireland, it was revealed tonight.
Mr Henk van Rein (54), is due to fly home form the United Arab Emirates tomorrow after the authorities intervened to settle a bitter legal dispute.
The Dutch-born clothing consultant's wife, Anne, said: "Our hearts are still pounding and everybody is just waiting for the phone call to tell us he's got on that plane.
"I've been in floods of tears since I heard yesterday just before I went to church. I rushed into my daughter's bedroom and told her 'Dad's coming home on Tuesday'. We just hugged and cried.
"This will be a family reunited and I'm finally getting my husband back."
Mr van Rein's passport was seized in 2001 after a row flared with his former employers. He has endured ill-health, racked up huge debts and been forced to live in cramped and dirty hotel rooms throughout his ordeal.
At one stage he was badly injured after intervening in a fight at a brothel where he was forced to stay, penniless. His plight plunged the entire family into a financial crisis, with their £300,000 home in Lisburn, Co Antrim at one stage threatened with repossession.
Mrs van Rein took on supply teaching jobs to pay mounting bills and send any spare cash to her husband.
The strain also took a huge toll on the couple's three children, now aged 23, 20 and 18, as they coped with school and university studies while their father was trapped thousands of miles away.
The businessman's ordeal began when he lost his £150,000-a-year job in July 2001. The Indian firm which sacked him was demanding he repaid money loaned to him when he helped it set up a factory in Ajman.
Mr van Rein claimed he was used for his technical expertise before being dumped.
His passport was impounded by a court while the legal wrangle continued, meaning he could not leave the country. But in a tireless campaign, his wife repeatedly pressured the British and Dutch embassies to intervene.
Mr van Rein left Holland at the age of 17 and studied in Yorkshire before setting up home in Northern Ireland. His work took him around the world, but he considers himself as much British as Dutch - his mother is Welsh and his late father was a naturalised UK citizen.
The businessman is even registered to vote in May's General Election. Crucially, however, he did not obtain a British passport.
Politicians in Belfast have also been lobbying on behalf of the family. Following months of negotiations the Sheikh of Sharjah's legal director struck a deal to pay a fraction of the £46,000 being demanded by Mr van Rein's ex-employers in return for his freedom.
He is due to board a British Airways flight to London early on Tuesday before travelling on to Belfast for an emotional reunion.
"Everybody has been praying that nothing goes wrong," his wife added.
"Henk is my soulmate and when you marry someone it's for better or worse. I could never have given up on him.
PA