Appeal for UAE to release prominent Emirati lawyer Mohammed Al-Roken, after serving 10-year prison sentence

Prominent Emirati lawyer and human rights advocate Mohammed Al-Roken has served his entire 10-year prison sentence after an unfair trial and numerous buses and ill-treatment in detention.

Al-Roken was arrested on 17th July 2012. He was held an undisclosed location for 8 months, without access to his lawyer and his family.

On 2nd July 2013, the Federal Supreme Court convicted and sentenced Dr. Al-Roken to a 10-year prison sentence for signing – along with 132 other people – an online petition calling for political reform.

He was convicted and sentenced following a grossly unfair mass trial of 94 people (known as the “UAE 94” trial) including human rights lawyers, judges and student activists.

Al-Roken is well-known for defending victims of human rights violations in the UAE. He defended some members of the “UAE 5”, five individuals sentenced to two to three years’ imprisonment in 2012 for having expressed criticism of government policies.

In recognition of his courageous human rights work, he was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2017 Lawyers for Lawyers Award.

Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, notably pointed out that not only have Mohammed al-Roken, Ahmed Mansour and Nasser bin Ghaith not only been criminally prosecuted and imprisoned for their legitimate and non-violent calls for respect for human rights in the UAE but have also been ill-treated in prison.

The expert referred to information she had received on the conditions of detention and ill-treatment to which they had been subjected, such as prolonged solitary confinement, and stressed that such behaviour violated human rights standards and could amount to torture.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders said Mohammed Al-Roken, imprisoned since 2012 for conspiracy against the government, is being held in solitary confinement.

In his report, he noted that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had found the detention of Mohammed al-Roken arbitrary and had called for his immediate release.

As his 10-year-sentence has come to an end, we call on the UAE authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mohammed Al-Roken without delay.

Pending his release, we call on UAE authorities to ensure that prisoners are granted access to basic amenities in their cells such as a bed, blankets in winter and air conditioning in summer, to have regular family visits, and to be allowed outside their cells to have contact with other prisoners in the canteen or the yard, as provided for by the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.