UAE’s Political Detainees: Four Months of Unanswered Questions
Unknown Fate of Dozens of Political Detainees in the UAE for Four Months
The unknown fate of dozens of political detainees in the UAE has been looming for the past four months, as the Abu Dhabi authorities have prevented any communication with the outside world, reinforcing the regime’s repressive security apparatus.
Since July 10th, the UAE authorities have completely disappeared the detainees, blocking any contact with their families following their attendance at a sentencing hearing over four months ago in the “Justice and Dignity Committee” case.
Remarkably, the forced disappearance has affected 25 detainees who were supposed to be released immediately after the July 10th ruling, where the court dismissed the charges against 24 detainees and acquitted one.
According to sources, the public prosecution rejected these verdicts and appealed, seeking to retry the detainees with harsher punishments.
The UAE’s State Security Court at the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court sentenced 43 individuals to life imprisonment, 5 others to 10 years, and 5 more to 5 years.
The source further noted that this new case of enforced disappearance may soon be escalated and highlighted by human rights organizations.
In a previous statement to “Arabi21” news site, prominent Emirati opposition figure and legal advisor Mohammad Bin Saqar Al-Zaabi stated that the 24 individuals who had their cases dismissed should have been released, as their sentences had expired years ago, with some having completed their sentences five years ago in the “Reform Call” case, but they were not released under the pretext that they were in “counseling.”
UAE law permits both the public prosecution and the accused to appeal a ruling to the Federal Supreme Court within one month.
Regarding the sole acquitted individual, the source confirmed it was businessman Khalaf Al-Rumeithi, who was handed over by Jordanian authorities in March of the previous year.
The source clarified that Al-Rumeithi was also implicated in the “Secret Organization” case, sentenced in absentia to 15 years, and it remains uncertain whether the UAE judiciary will retry him in this case.
Human Rights Watch and other international organizations have accused the UAE government of pursuing policies to keep political detainees imprisoned.
After the majority of sentences in the “Secret Organization” case, which resulted in the arrest of dozens in 2012, had concluded, new charges were brought against these detainees last year, even though they had already been in custody for 12 years.
The UAE judiciary has named the accused in the new “Justice and Dignity Committee” case, marking it as a fresh legal maneuver, despite it violating established UAE laws.
According to legal experts, the UAE has violated Article 19 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which states that a person cannot be tried twice for the same offense. This principle was reaffirmed by a joint statement from 43 human rights organizations last December.
Human rights centers have documented the horrors of torture in UAE prisons against detainees of conscience and peaceful opposition, including sexual assault, electric shocks, beatings, humiliation, sleep deprivation, and medical neglect.
The Emirates Detainee Advocacy Center (EDAC) stressed that torture remains a defining characteristic of UAE prisons, with international human rights organizations continuing to receive distress calls from political detainees describing the severe abuse they endure at the hands of UAE authorities.
EDAC further outlined the variety of torture methods used, which include psychological and physical techniques similar to those employed in some of the world’s most notorious prisons.
The following are some of the documented methods of torture used in UAE prisons:
- Temperature Control: Detainees are subjected to extreme temperatures in solitary confinement, sometimes forced to stand under air conditioning units for hours without blankets, causing severe physical pain. Prisoners are also exposed to extreme desert heat, with air conditioning shut off in cells, especially in Al Razeen prison, leading to suffocation and distress.
- Sleep Deprivation: This is one of the most common forms of torture, where detainees are forced to stay awake for days with loud noises and bright lights, leading to both physical and mental exhaustion.
- Bright Lights and Loud Music: Loud, propagandist music is played continuously in prisons like Al Razeen, causing significant psychological stress to detainees.
- Forced Standing for Long Periods: Detainees are made to stand for hours, causing chronic pain and circulation issues, with any attempt to sit resulting in severe punishment.
- Extended Interrogations and Targeted Beatings: Beatings are directed at specific parts of the body to inflict maximum pain, often accompanied by lengthy interrogations designed to mentally and physically exhaust detainees.
- Psychological Torture and Death Threats: Detainees endure threats of deportation, execution, and even poisoning as part of the psychological torture.
- Electric Shocks: Electric shocks are commonly used as a method of torture, with detainees being subjected to repeated shocks during interrogations.
- Sexual Assaults: Sexual assault and threats of sexual violence are employed as methods of humiliation, with several European detainees reporting being raped by prison guards.
- Nail Removal: Detainees have reported the removal of nails as a form of extreme torture.
- Beating and Humiliation: Physical abuse is often combined with efforts to humiliate prisoners, including forced drinking from shoes and other degrading acts.
These torturous methods aim to force detainees to confess to crimes they did not commit and break their spirits, as documented by the Emirates Detainee Advocacy Center, which continues to expose these systematic abuses and advocate for the protection of human rights in the UAE.
