Amnesty calls on UAE to release ‘unjustly’ imprisoned dissidents

Amnesty International yesterday called on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to release dozens of Emirati citizens who have been “unjustly imprisoned” for a decade, following a mass trial that took place in 2013.

The rights watchdog made the appeal as the UAE prepares to host the 28th Conference of the parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December.

“If governments around the world want to ensure that COP28 is not tarnished by repression and is successful in delivering urgent and effective climate action, they must act now by pressuring the Emirati government to urgently release these prisoners” the statement quoted Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, as saying.

“Although we are halfway through the year in which the UAE is in the international spotlight through its upcoming hosting of the most important annual climate change conference, COP28, its government has not released any of the 60 Emiratis it unjustly imprisoned in the notorious mass trial of 2013, even though 51 of those detained have completed their sentence,” she said.

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In March 2012, the UAE began a spate of arrests and prosecutions, which eventually led to 94 Emirati nationals being prosecuted in a mass trial that concluded on 2 July 2013, the statement said.

The defendants were charged over links to Al-Islah, an organisation affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, because, in the words of the indictment, it sought to change the country’s “system of governance”.

Of the 69 individuals convicted, 60 remain in prison, including 51 individuals who have completed their sentences yet remain in detention under the pretext of “counter-extremism counselling”.

In May, 52 organisations, including Amnesty International, issued a petition calling on the UAE to immediately release them and other arbitrarily detained prisoners.

However, during the same month, Jordan handed over an Emirati citizen who had been sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in the same trial.