Over 20 international human rights groups have called on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government to release all detainees being unjustly held despite completing their prison sentences, multiple news outlets reported on Wednesday, August 16. A letter by the groups states that it is imperative that the government release them before hosting the upcoming COP 28 climate conference from November 30 to December 12.
The groups added that the government must also “put an end to other human rights violations, including: monitoring government critics with sophisticated surveillance technology to stifle dissent; using repressive laws to imprison human rights defenders and dissidents; effectively denying the right to freedom of peaceful assembly through draconian legal restrictions and practices; and denying migrant workers, who suffer a range of violations linked to the abusive kafala system, the right to form unions.”
The letter mentions 58 detainees who were sentenced in the infamous “UAE94” case and are still being held even after completing their prison terms, in some cases years ago. However, instead of freeing them, the authorities have justified their continued detention by claiming that they have extremist and terrorist tendencies and pose a threat to national security, requiring further counseling and rehabilitation.
The UAE94 case was widely criticized as a mass trial where most of the defendants were lawyers, government critics, human rights activists, pro-democracy campaigners, academics, and other civil society figures. They were arrested in 2012 and sentenced to seven to 10 years in prison after they signed a petition in 2011 calling for political and democratic reforms in the country. Their petition had demanded democratic elections to the country’s Federal National Council and constitutional amendments to increase its legislative and oversight powers. The signatories were promptly arrested and put on a mass trial which was denounced worldwide as grossly unfair, baseless, and politically motivated.
In their letter, the organizations urged the UAE government to release all human rights activists and government critics “who were arrested, detained, charged or sentenced for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, or other human rights including Ahmed Mansoor, Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith, Amina Al-Abdouli, Maryam Al-Balushi, and members of the ‘UAE94’ case.” They also call for the release of all other detainees “who are being held past the end of their sentences,” and to “repeal the text of Article 40 of Federal Law No. 7 of 2014 on Combating Terrorism Offenses, which allows people to be detained indefinitely.” Lastly, they have demanded the removal of all restrictions that curtail basic human rights and civil liberties in the country and an end to political persecution of critics and activists.
Organizations including Access Now, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, World Organization Against Torture, IFEX, Human Rights First, and Front Line Defenders, among others, have signed the letter.
