UAE collective punishment policy: Abd al-Salam Darwish al-Marzouqi is an example

In the UAE, human rights violations are not only carried out against detained Emirati dissidents, but harassment and abuses also target those related to them.

Abd al-Salam Darwish al-Marzouqi's family were forced to leave the country since 2016 for a medical trip to the United States.

However, Emirati authorities withdrew their nationality through a phone call. They were then asked to report to the UAE passport office to hand in their passports and identity documents.

Last November, the family of the detainee, Abd al-Salam Darwich al-Marzouqi, mourned the death of their son, Salman Abd al-Salam al-Marzouqi, after his health deteriorated in his father's absence. 

The latter is serving a ten-year prison sentence, soon to be completed in al-Razeen prison, for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and opinion.

In the case of Abd al-Salam Darwish al-Marzouqi, the Emirati authorities have gone beyond the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of the father, who was arrested nine years ago, subjected to enforced disappearance, torture and forced to sign confessions without being able to read them, thereby denying him his right to a fair trial.

In fact, the authorities collectively punished his family by revoking his children's citizenship, denying them access to essential services such as medical care, something the activist's children particularly needed. As a result, Salman, who suffered from Autism and epileptic seizures from an early age, eventually died for lack of care, waiting in vain to see his father again after years of being deprived of any contact with him.