clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

UAE arrest and charges Bangladeshi protesters 

July 22, 2024 at 9:08 am

Students gather to protest the quota system in public service jobs and police, which killed at least six people and injured dozens more in Barishal, Bangladesh on July 16, 2024 [Niamul Rifat/Anadolu Agency]

The UAE’s Attorney-General “ordered an immediate investigation into the arrested Bangladeshi nationals who gathered and incited riots in several streets across the UAE on Friday,” state-owned news agency, WAM, reported.

Anwar Gargash, adviser to the president of the UAE, took to social media platform X and said: “The Attorney General’s decision to refer the protesters to trial is within the legal framework to maintain the state model and prevent the export of other countries’ problems to the UAE.”

The protesters had been charged with deliberately disrupting transportation, inciting protests, rioting, causing property damage and publishing audio-visual recordings of these actions online, according to WAM.

The UAE constitution stipulates that “anyone who participates in a gathering to prevent or disrupt the implementation of laws and regulations, thereby endangering public peace or security, shall be punished with temporary imprisonment and a fine.”

READ: ‘Farcical mass trial’ sees UAE issue ‘unjust sentences’ against 84 detainees, rights group says