His wife Daniela Tejada spoke to media shortly after returning to the UK from Abu Dhabi where she saw Durham University's Matthew Hedges sentenced to life.
His wife Daniela Tejada told Matthew Hedges, didn't have a lawyer and was "shaking" as the verdict was read out during a hearing that lasted less than five minutes on Wednesday.
Hedges, who is originally from Exeter, said he had been in the country conducting research on the UAE's security strategy for his PhD thesis when he was arrested at Dubai airport on 5 May.
Sources in the UAE claim "espionage material" was found on Hedges' laptop. He was a spy posing as an academic researcher.
Ms Tejada said afterwards: "I am in complete shock and I don't know what to do.
She said she had contacted the Foreign Office "on a weekly basis" since her husband's arrest in May.
"They just disregarded my requests, they said it wasn't part of their job, it wasn't part of their duty," she continued.
"On one occasion, one of the case workers said the Foreign Office did not have a duty of care so weren't obliged to make such representations."
She told, this whole case has been handled appallingly from the very beginning with no one taking Matthew's case seriously.
She said: "I believe they should have taken a firmer stance from the beginning, if not publicly then through their private representations.
The UAE attorney general previously said the sentence - which could see the academic serve up to 25 years in jail before being deported - was not final as he had the right to appeal.
He has 30 days to appeal after a Federal Appeals Court convicted him on charges of spying and sharing sensitive security and intelligence information to a foreign country.
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