Mohammed Munshi was sentenced to 11 years jail for criminal fraud last July and lost his first appeal in November. Last month he lost what may be the final appeal possible in the Mongolian justice system, but had his sentence reduced to seven years.

Munshi had been chairman of Gobi Coal, a developer of two coal mines in southern Mongolia, when authorities seized his Australian and British passports in March 2015. His family have not seen him since because they have not felt safe travelling to Mongolia.

His passports were seized a month after Gobi Coal obtained an order in a Hong Kong arbitration for a Mongolian businessman to repay a $US11.5 million loan, according to a complaint lodged with the UN Human Rights Council by Munshi’s Perth-based lawyer.

The complaint alleged the brother of the businessman who lost the arbitration instigated the action, and subsequent fraud charges, against Munshi.

Munshi’s son Arif Munshi said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had told the family for three years that there was nothing they could do while the legal process was under way.

Now the legal options appear exhausted, the family see the best hope in government-to- government intervention at ministerial level to secure a pardon from the Mongolian President on health grounds.

Arif Munshi said his 57-year-old father’s health problems included lower back pain that needed an operation, severe varicose veins which put him at high risk of deep vein thrombosis and an enlarged prostate.

The family say Ms Bishop agreed to meet with them this month.

Arif Munshi said the consular assistance had been limited to monthly joint visits to his father, a dual UK-Australian national, by British and Australian embassy staff.