Rights group calls on UAE to release two jailed for criticising Egypt

Human Rights Watch has called on the United Arab Emirates to release an academic and a Jordanian journalist detained last year for criticising Egypt. The organisation said that the two men face many charges, including “engaging in hostility against Egypt”.

According to HRW, Emirati academic Nasser Bin Ghaith was arrested in August, 2014 after making some online comments. The UAE-based Jordanian journalist Tayseer Al-Najjar has told his family that his detention since December 2015 relates to his online criticism of Israeli military action in Gaza and the Egyptian security forces’ destruction of tunnels between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. His wife, Majida Hourani, told HRW that her husband has said that he has not been formally charged. She explained that he posted the social media comments in question in July 2014, nearly a year before he moved to the UAE to take up employment there.

“The UAE authorities seem to believe that they have the right to detain anyone who has ever expressed any views, anywhere, that they disagree with,” noted HRW deputy Middle East director Joe Stork. “There is no justification for throwing a journalist, or anyone else, into prison for expressing a peaceful opinion.”

What the UAE characterises as “hostility” against foreign governments is what most people consider criticism or analysis, he added. “This is a prime example of the UAE’s practice of invoking national security to persecute peaceful critics.”

The rights watchdog has called on the UAE authorities to drop all charges against the men immediately.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been the most supportive of Egypt amongst the Gulf countries since the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in