A campaign to release opinion Jordanian detainees

A campaign calling for the release of Jordanian detainees, imprisoned for their opinion in the UAE, received wide interaction, amid great condemnation of Abu Dhabi violations against detainees, despite the escalation of the risks of the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

Jordanian jurists and media workers have launched a campaign over the past few days, calling on for the release of Jordanians who have been detained by the UAE authorities for years, especially after some of them were infected with the Coronavirus.

Using the hashtag of #JordanianDetaineesInThe UAE, the families of the detainees and their supporters tweeted, calling on the UAE authorities to urgently release them. The tweeters called on the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to live up to its duty towards the arrested Jordanians.

Jordanian tweeters asked about the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in following up the case of its citizens detained in the UAE, especially since it did not issue any statement on their case.

Rukia Mattar, the mother of the detained Bahaa Adel Matar, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence in Al-Wathba Prison, said that her son had COVID-19, and he had several other respiratory diseases.

Matar urged King Abdullah II to intervene, which was repeated by her husband, Adel Matar, saying that his son had been imprisoned in Al Wathba for nearly five years, along with three others.

Adel Matar said that messages through WhatsApp were enough to put them in prison for ten years.

Abu Dhabi arrested four Jordanians in 2015, the two brothers Yasser and Abdullah Abu Bakr, Bahaa Adel Matar and Maher Atiya Abu Al Shawareb, after they circulated a segment about ISIS “with the intention of informing rather than promoting,” so the fate of the four was imprisonment for ten years, in addition to a fining each of them of one million dirhams (about $270,000).

For its part, Human Rights Watch called last Wednesday that the UAE should take urgent measures to protect the mental and physical health of prisoners, amid reports of the spread of Coronavirus in at least three detention centers across the country.

Relatives of prisoners in Al-Wathba Prison, near Abu Dhabi, and in Al-Aweer Prison and the new Al-Barsha Detention Center in Dubai, told Human Rights Watch that the prisoners in these centers showed symptoms of COVID-19 infection or were confirmed to be infected. They said that prisoners, some of whom suffer from chronic diseases, have been denied adequate medical care, that overcrowding and unsanitary conditions make social separation and recommended hygiene practices extremely difficult, and that the authorities do not provide information to prisoners and their families about possible outbreaks or precautionary measures.

“Overcrowding, lack of health conditions, and denial of medical care are not new things in the notorious Emirati detention centers,” said Michael Page, deputy director of the Middle East division of the human rights organization. He continued, “But the ongoing (Corona) epidemic poses an additional serious threat to prisoners. The best way for the Emirati authorities to allay the concerns of the prisoners’ families is to allow inspection by independent international monitors. ”

The organization called on the UAE authorities to further reduce the prison population, to allow social separation and ensure that everyone in the prison has access to vital information and safe communication with family and lawyers in addition to developing appropriate protocols for personal hygiene and cleaning, training and supplies such as masks, disinfectants and gloves are provided to reduce the risk of infection. The authorities should immediately allow independent international observers to enter the country and regularly monitor prisons and detention centers.

The organization stated that prisoners, some of whom have chronic diseases, have been denied adequate medical care, that overcrowding and unsanitary conditions make social separation and recommended hygiene practices extremely difficult, and that the authorities do not provide information to prisoners and their families about possible outbreaks or precautionary measures.

The organization quoted relatives of some of the inmates as saying that “the prison authorities started, when the reported virus was spread, to transfer those who had symptoms to unknown locations, and kept the inmates who had not been transferred without testing or medical care for weeks.”

“We Register” published an audio recording of a Jordanian detainee explaining the suffering of inmates in the wards of Al Wathba prison, and the prison administration’s indifference to the spread of the virus.

The detainee says that the prison administration shaved their heads, without any sterilization of shaving tools, and that some prison wards are not properly prepared, and the sun and air do not enter them, and are filled with bird droppings.