The authorities
in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) should reveal the whereabouts of prominent
human rights defender and citizen-journalist Ahmed Mansoor and release
him immediately and unconditionally, over two dozen human rights organisations
said today. He is being held for his peaceful human rights work.
20 March 2018
marks one year since security forces arbitrarily arrested Mansoor, winner of
the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015, at his home in
Ajman. The UAE authorities have continued to detain him in an unknown location,
despite condemnation from UN
human rights experts and independent human rights organisations.
“The authorities
have subjected Ahmed Mansoor to enforced disappearance since his wife last saw
him in September 2017. They must reveal his whereabouts to his family
and grant him regular access to them and to a lawyer of his choosing,” said Khalid
Ibrahim, Executive Director of the Gulf Centre for
Human Rights (GCHR).
Following his
arrest on 20 March 2017, the authorities announced that he is facing
speech-related charges that include using social media websites to “publish
false information that harms national unity.”
On 28 March
2017, a group of UN human
rights experts called on the UAE government to release
Mansoor immediately, describing his arrest as “a direct attack on the
legitimate work of human rights defenders in the UAE.” They said that they
feared 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 human rights organisations.”
“Mansoor’s
arbitrary detention is a violation of his right to freedom of expression and
opinion. The UAE authorities must drop all charges against him and release
him immediately,” said Carles Torner, Executive Director of PEN International.
Since his
arrest, Mansoor has not been allowed to make telephone calls to his family and
has been allowed only two short visits with his wife, on 3 April and 17
September 2017, both under strict supervision. He was brought from an unknown
place of detention to the State Security Prosecutor’s office in Abu Dhabi for
both visits. The authorities have refused to inform his family about his place
of detention and have ignored their requests for further visits.
In February
2018, a group of international human rights organisations
commissioned two lawyers from Ireland to travel to Abu Dhabi to seek access to
Mansoor. The UAE authorities gave the lawyers conflicting information about
Mansoor’s whereabouts. The Interior Ministry, the official body responsible for
prisons and prisoners, denied any knowledge of his whereabouts and referred the
lawyers to the police. The police also said they had no information about his
whereabouts. The lawyers also visited Al-Wathba Prison in Abu Dhabi following
statements made by the authorities after Mansoor’s arrest, which suggested that
he was held being held there. However, the prison authorities told the lawyers there
was nobody matching Mansoor’s description in the prison.
“Instead of protecting Mansoor, the authorities have instead
detained him for a year with hardly any access to his family and no access to a
lawyer of his choosing. Their contempt for human rights defenders and brazen
disregard for their obligations under international human rights law is truly
shocking.” said Sima Watling, UAE Researcher at
Amnesty International’s Middle East Regional Office.
Background
A dozen
security officers arrested Mansoor at his home in Ajman in the pre-dawn hours
of 20 March 2017 and took him to an undisclosed location. The security
officials conducted an extensive search of his home and took away all of the family’s
mobile phones and laptops, including those belonging to his young children.
The authorities
refused to disclose any information about Mansoor to his family, who had no
information about him until a statement was issued on the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s
website on 29 March 2017 claiming that he was in detention in the Central
Prison, also known as Al-Wathba, in Abu Dhabi. But the authorities have failed
to confirm his place of detention to his family.
Since his
arrest, according to informed sources, Mansoor is believed to have been held in
solitary confinement without any access to a lawyer of his choosing. Prolonged
and indefinite solitary confinement can amount to torture or other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment under international human rights law. Human
rights organisations have also received reports from informed sources that
Mansoor may be being subjected to other forms of torture or ill-treatment in
detention.
The UAE
authorities have said in their public statements that Mansoor is accused of
using social media websites to “publish false information that harms national
unity.” The UAE’s official news agency, WAM, said on the day of his arrest that
he is also accused of using social media websites to “promote [a] sectarian and
hate-incited agenda;” and “publish false and misleading information that
…damages the country’s reputation.”
The statement
classified these as “cybercrimes,” indicating that the charges against him may
be based on alleged violations of the UAE’s repressive 2012 cybercrime law,
which authorities have used to imprison numerous activists and which provides
for long prison sentences and severe financial penalties.
In the weeks
leading up to his arrest, Mansoor had used Twitter to call for the release of the
human rights activist Osama Al-Najjar, who remains in prison despite
having completed a three-year prison sentence in March 2017 for his peaceful
activities on Twitter; as well as the release of prominent academic and
economist Dr Nasser bin Ghaith,
sentenced in March 2017 to 10 years for his Twitter posts. Mansoor had also
used his Twitter account to draw attention to human rights violations across
the Middle East region, including in Egypt and Yemen. He had also signed a
joint letter with other activists in the region calling on Arab League leaders,
meeting in Jordan in March 2017 for the Arab Summit, to release political
prisoners in their countries. He also has a blog, which he used
to write on various topics, including articles about the human rights
violations that he is subjected to because of his peaceful activities, as well
as about the situation of freedom of expression and prisoners of conscience in
the UAE.
Mansoor is a member of GCHR’s Advisory Board and a member of the advisory committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East
and North Africa Division.
The mission to locate
Mansoor was sponsored by GCHR, the Martin Ennals Foundation, Front Line
Defenders, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), as well as FIDH
and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under their partnership, the
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.
The undersigned human rights organisations call on the UAE
authorities to:
·
Immediately and
unconditionally release Ahmed Mansoor, as he is detained solely for his
peaceful human rights activities;
·
Immediately
disclose his whereabouts and ensure that he is held in an official place of
detention;
· Pending his release, ensure that he is protected from torture and
other ill-treatment, including prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement which can amount to torture
or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and
·
Pending his
release, ensure that he is treated in line with the UN Standard Minimum Rules
for the Treatment of Prisoners, including by giving him regular access to his
family and a lawyer of his choosing, as well as to any medical care he may
require.
Signed:
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain
Amnesty
International
Arabic Network
for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia
English PEN
Front Line Defenders
Gulf Centre for
Human Rights (GCHR)
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), under the Observatory for the Protection
of Human Rights Defenders
International
Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Maharat Foundation
Martin Ennals Foundation
Moroccan Association for Human Rights
PEN
International
Reporters
Without Borders
Scholars at Risk
Tunisian Association for Academic Freedoms
Tunis Center for Press Freedom
Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH)
Tunisian Organisation against Torture
Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State
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