UN Expert Calls for Immediate Release of Five Emirati Political Prisoners

A UN expert has called for the immediate release of a group of activists detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who are forced to endure conditions that may amount to torture.

United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, says the five detainees are being held in solitary confinement for long periods and had their air conditioning switched off in temperatures above 40C, unbearable conditions that could well amount to torture. She called for them to be immediately released after eight years in Abu Dhabi’s notorious Al-Razeen prison, a high security facility known to hold the majority of UAE’s circa 200 political prisoners.

Mohamed al-Mansoori, Hassan Mohammed al-Hammad, Hadif Rashed Abdullah al-Owais, Ali Saeed al-Kindi and Salim Hamdoon al-Shahhi are part of UAE94, a group of 94 lawyers, judges, university lecturers and student leaders, who were sentenced to between 5-15 years in prison in July 2013 for their peaceful advocacy for democratic reform during the Arab Spring.

Speaking about the grossly unfair UAE94 trial, Mary Lawlor said that their sentences were "excessively severe" and they should have "never been detained in the first place for legitimately exercising the freedoms that all people are entitled to", adding that there are "worrying allegations that they are subjected to long periods in solitary confinement, which could amount to torture".

The UN expert also voiced severe concerns that political prisoners were being left without air conditioning as temperatures rose above 40C, and that windows were being covered to prevent prisoners from seeing sunlight. Their access to legal counsel during the UAE94 trial also was severely curtailed, the UN said.

Since the 2011 Arab Spring, the Emirati authorities have cracked down on freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly to such a degree that today, civil society and civic space are virtually non-existent in the country. Political parties, human rights organisations and demonstrations are banned in the UAE.