Urging UAE Government to Free Dr Mohammed Al Roken, as we begin a new year

As we welcome the year 2022, ICFUAE reiterates its call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr Mohammed Al Roken, a prominent Emirati human rights lawyer and activist, who has dedicated much of his career to providing legal assistance to victims of human rights violations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Dr Al Roken is an award-winning academic and professor of constitutional law, well known for representing the UAE 5, a group of human rights activists who were convicted and later pardoned for running a website criticising the Emirati government. 

On July 17, 2012, Dr Al Roken himself was arrested and held in solitary confinement, incommunicado, at a secret location. On July 2, 2013, he was unjustly sentenced to 20 years in prison by Abu Dhabi’s Federal Supreme Court as part of the grossly unfair UAE 94 mass trial. He was tried alongside 93 other social and political activists, 64 of whom were charged with “plotting against the government” after signing a petition calling for democratic reform in the Gulf state. 

Since his conviction, Dr Al Roken has been held in Abu Dhabi’s Al-Razeen prison, notoriously known as the Guantanamo of the UAE. Al-Razeen prison routinely fails to meet the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and is infamous for the torture and ill-treatment of inmates. 

In November 2015, Amnesty International revealed that Dr Al Roken had been subjected to “music torture” whereby prison authorities continuously blasted propaganda music in his cell at excruciating volumes, leading to him losing consciousness due to high blood pressure, and exacerbating his ear infection. 

2021 recap

On February 10, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, condemned the UAE’s long-term imprisonment of three activists, including Mohammed Al Roken. She called on the Emirati government to release them so that they could “continue their meaningful and necessary human rights work” and raised concerns about his health, detention conditions and treatment.

On September 16, the European Union parliament passed a resolution condemning alleged rights violations in the Gulf state, including Dr Al Roken’s imprisonment, and demanded the “immediate” and unconditional release of Mohammed al-Roken, Ahmed Mansoor and Nasser bin Ghaith.

ICFUAE statement

Next year is a crucial year for Dr Mohammed Al Roken as his sentence is due to expire on July 17, 2022. It is imperative that his original release date is respected and that he is not subjected to indefinite detention, a common practice in the UAE which is in flagrant breach of both international human rights norms, as well as the UAE’s own laws regarding fair trials and due process. 

First and foremost, we call on the Emirati authorities to recognise their constitutional responsibility to uphold and respect human rights by releasing Dr Mohammed Al Roken unconditionally without further delay. Pending his release, we demand an urgent improvement to the treatment of prisoners in the UAE and urge the UAE government to release political prisoners that have been detained beyond their sentence for no just cause. 

What can I do to help?

Take action for Dr Mohammed Al Roken by signing and sharing ICFUAE’s petition calling on the Emirati authorities to release human rights defenders and activists during the Dubai Expo 2020.

Tweet regularly calling for his immediate and unconditional release: 

• Use the hashtags #FreeAlRoken and #FreeEmiratiActivists. 
• Copy in @DrAlRoken. 
• Address the tweets to @HHShkMohd (the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE), @SaifBZayed (the Minister of Interior, who is the authority responsible for prisons in the UAE) and @MohamedBinZayed (Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi). 

Watch out for our “Twitter Storms” on key dates.