UN says the jailed dissidents are part of the so-called ‘UAE94’ – a group of 94 lawyers, rights advocates, and academics whose sentences have expired since 2019
The United Arab Emirates is reportedly arbitrarily detaining 12 human rights activists who have already completed their prison terms handed down over an alleged plot to overthrow the government, according to a UN document released on Friday.
The document was released three weeks after relatives of the prisoners and rights activists said over 50 people sentenced for planning a coup were being held months and years after their jail terms ended.
The dissidents are part of the so-called “UAE94” – a group of 94 lawyers, rights advocates, and academics tried in 2013 and whose jail terms in the UAE began expiring four years ago.
In the document, the United Nations said 12 dissidents whose multi-year sentences had all expired since July 2019 were being held due to their status as human rights defenders and because of their efforts “to hold the authorities to account.” It called for their immediate release.
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Emirati authorities have previously said allegations that prisoners were being held beyond the completion of their sentences were false and unsubstantiated.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the detentions violate several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“The appropriate remedy would be to release all the 12 individuals immediately and accord them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law,” it said.
The U.S.-allied UAE, a Gulf trading and tourism hub and big oil producer, does not allow political parties and shows little tolerance toward dissent.
“There’s no justification for the ten years that they spent in prison but keeping them for even more time, it’s just too much,” Jenan Al-Marzooqi, the daughter of one of the UAE detainees, told Reuters.
i24NEWS
