A British missionary couple have appeared in court and been charged with sedition following their arrest a week ago in The Gambia, a largely Muslim nation and popular package tourist destination.

David Fulton, 60, and his wife Fiona, 46, were reportedly offered bail of £125,000 each which they have been unable to pay. They were arrested last Saturday accused of inciting rebellion against the government.

Police said the Fultons had sent letters critical of the government to individuals and groups. The couple were paraded on state television earlier in the week.

President Yahya Jammeh seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1994 and has ruled Gambia with an iron fist ever since. Journalists and opposition activists receive death threats and are regularly arrested, beaten and detained without charge, according to human rights groups.

The couple moved to the mostly Muslim West African country 9 years ago after initially visiting as tourists. They live in Serre Kunda, a town close to the capital, where they were arrested last Saturday.

Speaking from the capital Banjul a missionary colleague, Kofi Mensah, told The Times there was confusion surrounding the whereabouts of the couple. "I am trying to find out where they are. I have heard nothing from them but think Fiona may be at the police headquarters," he said.

Mr Fulton - who became a Christian while serving a jail term in the UK for armed robbery - is thought to be locked up at the overcrowded Mile Two prison outside the capital.

A friend of the couple who did not want to be named said Mrs Fulton was being well treated, but there were concerns for her husband. "We don't think he's fared quite as well," said the friend. "He's not eating."

Pastor Martin Speed of Westhoughton Pentecostal Church in Bolton, with which the couple has links, said: "The work he is doing is not political. He's sharing his Christian faith with people.

"There does seem to be a growing difficulty of Christians in the country of Gambia," he said.

Mr Fulton helped establish a Gambia branch of the Christian organization Prison Fellowship International. A newsletter published by the Fellowship said Mr Fulton had fallen foul of Gambia's government in the past.

He was "arrested and banned from the prison system" after an inmate complained that he was trying to convert detainees. The Fellowship newsletter reported that Mr Fulton became a Christian while in prison in Britain. "I robbed security cars all over England," it quoted him as saying.

Mr Fulton also served in the British army before becoming a missionary and moving to Gambia with his wife and their two children who now live in England. After being banned from the Gambian prison system Mr Fulton became a military chaplain, a role that may have put him on a collision course with the unpredictable president.

Mr Jammeh is prone to outlandish claims and bouts of paranoia that see alleged plotters thrown in jail.

In recent years the eccentric 43-year old retired colonel claimed to have a secret cure for AIDS – his prescription is a green herbal paste and a diet of bananas. Mr Jammeh has visited the sick and dying waving his hands over their heads and chanting incantations rather than supplying anti-retrovirals.

A United Nations official who questioned the efficacy the president's 'cure' was thrown out of the country.

Rights groups were outraged earlier this year when Mr Jammeh told a rally that he would make the country's ban on homosexuality "tougher than the Iranian laws" and threatened to behead homosexuals giving them 24 hours to leave the country.

The skinny West African state clings to the banks of the river Gambia and its narrow Atlantic coastline dotted with resort hotels has become popular with British holidaymakers seeking a cheap tropical break.

A Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed that two British nationals have been arrested in The Gambia.

Times Recommends

• A doctor, a daughter and a man called Johnny
• Mona Lisa's smile may have belied ill health
• ‘Parasite economy’ lies behind Greek tragedy