Human Rights Groups calling for freedom of GCC Political Prisoners and end to Saudi directed crackdowns

United Arab Emirates: End Arrests; Free Political Activists – Stop Crackdown on Freedom of Expression, Association
30 April, 2012 – HRW

This wave of detentions against peaceful dissent is a telling indicator of UAE’s deepening abuses of human rights. Their latest action, against these nine men, has once again shown the UAE government’s intentions to silence anyone who peacefully expresses political opinions.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director

(London) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities should immediately and unconditionally release nine political activists held in the context of a widening attack on dissent, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The government should stop threatening to revoke the citizenship of seven of them because of their political activity.

The authorities are holding the men solely on account of their affiliation with a non-violent political group and their peaceful criticism of the government, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. The nine men belong to the Reform and Social Guidance Association (al-Islah), a non-profit organization that advocates greater adherence to Islamic precepts, which has been engaged in peaceful political debate and discussion in the UAE for many years.

“The UAE authorities need to end this wave of arbitrary arrests,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s deputy Middle East and North Africa programme director. “These men, who have not used or advocated violence, are held solely for exercising their right to freedom of opinion and expression. They are prisoners of conscience and should be released immediately and unconditionally.”

The most recent arrest was on April 20, 2012, when plainclothes officials from the UAE Amn al-Dawla (State Security) agency detained the chairman of al-Islah, Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Kayed al-Qasimi. His son, Abdullah Sultan, told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that his 54-year-old father is being held, apparently without a detention order or charge, in the palace of the ruler of the Ras al-Khaimah emirate, who is his father’s cousin. The ruler has told family members that the basis of the detention relates to a “family matter.”

The government claimed through its official news agency in December 2011 that it had stripped six al-Islah members of their UAE citizenship. On April 9, the authorities detained the men – Dr. Ali Hussain al-Hammadi, Dr. Shahin Abdullah al-Hosni, Hussein Munif al-Jabri and his brother Hassan Munif al-Jabri, Ibrahim Hassan al-Marzouqi, and Sheikh Mohammad Abdul Razak al-Sediq – when they responded to a summons to appear at an Abu Dhabi office of the Interior Ministry. One of the lawyers for the detained men told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that the authorities said they arrested the six for refusing to sign a pledge to seek another nationality. …more