The family of a mum detained by the authorities in Syria have told of their relief after hearing her voice on the phone for the first time in weeks.

Rwida Hamoud, 40, was released on bail this week, but is still being prevented from leaving the country after flying there on holiday with her three young children more than a month ago.

Her family, of Highfield Road, Feltham, believe she was jailed because her former husband, Wahed Saker, is a dissident journalist who has criticised the Syrian Government.

Her 20-year-old son Jef Saker, a tiler, said the British Embassy had been requesting access to his mum, and then on Wednesday he was overjoyed when she called from her relatives’ house in Syria.

He said: “They’ve paid the fees for her to get out, but she is not allowed to leave the country at all. It was a really, really good relief to hear her voice, it was an amazing feeling.”

He said his mum, a British citizen, was reluctant to say what had happened, but told him that the authorities asked her about Mr Saker.

Ms Hamoud was on holiday with her children Sally, 14, Dayana, 11, and five-year-old Mohamed when they were prevented from catching their return flight on April 25.

The children flew back alone on May 9, and the family believe Ms Hamoud was taken to prison by the country’s secret police about a week later.

Syria’s Zanoubia TV, which operates from Belgium, flew to the UK to speak with Ms Hamoud’s family and the Hounslow and Brentford Times this week to try and raise awareness of her detention.

Her son Jef said he faxed last week’s Hounslow and Brentford Times front page story to the British Embassy in Syria to show them how the family had been affected.

Tim Hancock, UK campaigns director of Amnesty International, said the human rights group was looking into Ms Hamoud’s detention, adding that she would have been at risk of torture, which “is extremely common in places of detention in Syria.”

He said: “Syrian authorities have a long and troubling record of holding people in incommunicado detention for weeks or even months on end.”

Professor Nigel Rodley, an international human rights lawyer and member of the UN Human Rights Committee, said Ms Hamoud’s MP needed to ensure the Foreign Office dealt with the case seriously.