UAE must free critics 'unjustly' jailed in mass trial: Amnesty

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
2 Jul 2023 23:47

Amnesty International denounces the United Arab Emirate's human rights record, stressing that the UAE is now in the "international spotlight."

A policeman directs prisoners leaving their daily shift at the Inmates Education and Training Department of the Central Prison in Dubai on July 26, 2017. (AP)

According to Amnesty International, the United Arab Emirates has to release dozens of nationals "unjustly imprisoned" in a 2013 mass trial.

Amnesty International warned in a statement marking a decade after the trial's conclusion that the COP28 summit would be "tarnished by repression" if the 60 Emiratis still imprisoned were not quickly released.

In a statement, Heba Morayef, Amnesty's regional director for the Middle East stated that the UAE is in the "international spotlight through its upcoming hosting of the most important annual climate change conference," detailing that its government has still not released any of the 60 nationals imprisoned although 51 of them have officially completed their sentence.

The "UAE94" trial came after a wave of arrests and persecutions against 94 Emirati critics of the government in 2012, including activists, attorneys, students, and teachers.

The UAE has prosecuted scores of people with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which it considers a "terrorist group."

Amnesty International said that 60 of the 69 convicted people are still in prison, including 51 who are supposedly receiving "counter-extremism counseling."

Human rights groups have criticized the case, particularly due to the COP28 being held in Dubai in November.

According to Morayef, "COP28 will not bring about the ambitious action we need to avoid climate breakdown if it is held in an environment where the host state has laws that restrict the freedom of expression."

"If governments around the world want to ensure that COP28 is not tarnished by repression... they must act now by pressuring the Emirati government to urgently release these prisoners."

More than 40 human rights organizations signed a petition in May calling for the inmates to be released.

Also in May, an Emirati-Turkish dual national condemned in absentia to 15 years in prison as part of the mass trial was extradited from Jordan to the UAE.

The UAE announced at the time that he was detained for "establishing a secret organization affiliated with the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood," and that it "will not hesitate to go after those wanted for justice and prosecute them in fair judicial process".