Calls for the UK to intervene for the release of prominent activists in Gulf including Ahmed Mansoor

The UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was urged by Cross-party MPs to call for the release of arbitrarily imprisoned human rights activists from three Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain in light of the threat posed by COVID-19.

The group of British MP, including Brendan O’Hara, Sir Peter Bottomely, Father of the House, Caroline Lucas, and Andy Slaughter among others, have signed a letter raising concerns on Gulf detainees and urged UK Foreign Office to intervene to secure the safety of 3 prominent human rights activists. Saudi’s Loujain al-Hathloul UAE’s Ahmed Mansoor Bahrain’s Abduljalil Al Singace.

According to ” The Guardian”, concern was also being expressed for prominent human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor, who is serving a 10-year sentence by the UAE Al-Sadr prison for “insulting the rank and reputation of the UAE and their symbols” and “disseminating false information to damage the United Arab Emirates’ reputation abroad”. He has been held in solitary confinement and is said to have no bed nor access to water, and he has staged successive hunger strikes. His health has deteriorated sharply.

“With Brexit fast approaching, it is paramount that human rights are at the centre of UK foreign policy. The government has too often turned a blind eye to the plight of imprisoned human rights defenders in the Gulf and with COVID-19 now posing an unprecedented imminent threat to their lives, it is time to take a stand and call for their immediate release”, Brendan O’Hara MP, Chair of the APPG on Human Rights and Democracy in the Gulf, said.