Urgent appeal for the release of Mr. Mohammed Al-Siddiq to attend the funeral of his late daughter Mrs. Alaa Al-Siddiq
His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
President of the United Arab Emirates
24 June 2021
RE: Urgent appeal for the release of Mr. Mohammed Al-Siddiq to attend the funeral of his late daughter Mrs. Alaa Al-Siddiq
We, the undersigned organizations, write to you this urgent appeal for the release of Mr. Mohammed Abdul Ruzzaq Al-Siddiq to participate in the funeral of his late daughter Ms. Alaa Al-Siddiq who died on 19 June 2021 in a road accident in the United Kingdom.
We call on Your Highness, as President of the United Arab Emirates, to look at this humanitarian situation and urgently direct the concerned authorities to allow Mr. Al-Siddiq to pay his respects to his daughter, whom he has not seen for over nine years.
Your Highness, Mr. Al-Siddiq has only nine months left to serve of his sentence, after spending nine and a half years in prison, and we believe that keeping him detained in light of these harsh humanitarian circumstances has no justification, and that his release would be an important gesture as a move towards tolerance, which the UAE has adopted as its motto.
We would also like to remind Your Highness that justice is the foundation of ruling, and mercy is above the law, and that the imprisonment of Mr. Al-Siddiq was not due to a crime he committed, but rather due to his peaceful and civilised expression of opinions.
In view of the above, we kindly ask you to direct the concerned authorities to allow Mr. Al-Siddiq to attend the funeral of his daughter so he can have a last look at her face before she is buried.
Yours sincerely,
- International Campaign for Freedom in the UAE (ICFUAE)
- Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
- Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center (EDAC)
- MENA Rights Group
- Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
- International Centre for Justice and Human Rights (ICJHR)
