(Geneva ,
20 June 2017) – The Martin Ennals
Foundation and the ten human rights organizations that make up the jury of the
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) – including the World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) -, today renewed their appeal to the
government of the United Arab Emirates to release immediately and
unconditionally Ahmed Mansoor, the
last remaining human rights defender in the UAE who had previously been able to
criticize the authorities publicly.

Ahmed
Mansoor received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015.
Three
months ago today, in the pre-dawn hours of 20 March about a dozen security
officers arrested Ahmed Mansoor at his home in Ajman, about 150 kilometres northeast
of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.
“We urge
the UAE government to end the incomprehensible three-month imprisonment of
Ahmed Mansoor. This is really about the UAE failing to respect basic principles
of justice” said Dick Oosting, Chairperson of the MEA Board.
“The
purported case against Ahmed Mansoor beggars belief. States have the duty to
bring to justice those whom they suspect of having committed criminal offenses.
Yet what is clear is that the UAE authorities have arbitrarily deprived him of
liberty and taken him away from his family for peacefully exercising his human right
to freedom of expression. The three-month lapse and total lack of transparency indicates,
likewise, that the authorities merely wanted to silence him”.
On 20
March, the UAE authorities stated that Ahmed Mansoor was accused of using
social media websites, including to “publish false and misleading information
that harm national unity and social harmony and damage the country’s reputation,”
under the UAE’s repressive 2012 Cybercrime Law, which authorities have used to
imprison numerous human rights activists and which provides for long prison
sentences and severe financial penalties.
On 28
March, a group of United Nations human rights experts called on the UAE
government to release him immediately, describing his arrest as “a direct
attack on the legitimate work of human rights defenders in the UAE.” They expressed
their fear that his arrest “may constitute an act of reprisal for his
engagement with UN human rights mechanisms, for the views he expressed on
social media, including Twitter, as well as for being an active member of
organizations such as the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, and an active supporter
of others, including Human Rights Watch.”
The next
day, the UAE authorities responded directly to the statement, disputing the
allegation that Ahmed Mansoor’s detention was arbitrary, and stating that he
“has the freedom to hire a lawyer and that his family has full access to the
place of confinement and is allowed to visit him.”
The government has detained
Ahmed Mansoor in Abu Dhabi. It is too
far from his home for regular visits from his family, who have only been able
to see him once in the last three months. The authorities appear determined to
isolate Ahmed Mansoor from his own family.
Despite government
assertions that he is able to do so, it appears that he has not been able to
appoint an independent lawyer of his own choosing. This is a necessary
component of the right to a fair trial.
The right to see a lawyer
is a basic right of anyone detained as outlined in article 16 of the Arab
Charter on Human Rights, which the UAE has ratified.
The ten
human rights organizations that make up the jury of the Martin Ennals Award for
Human Rights Defenders reiterate their call to the UAE authorities to release
Ahmed Mansoor immediately and unconditionally, since the charges against him
relate solely to his human rights work and his right to freedom of expression. In
the meantime, he should be granted immediate and regular access to his family
and a lawyer of his choosing. The UAE must end their harassment of human rights
defenders and critics of the authorities.
SIGNATORIES
Organizations forming the
jury of the Martin Ennals Award:
Agency for Diakonia and Development, Germany
Amnesty International
FIDH
Front Line Defenders
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
International Commission
of Jurists
International Service for
Human Rights
HURIDOCS
World Organisation
Against Torture (OMCT)
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