Human Rights Organisation Addressing UN to Save Prisoners of Conscience in UAE

The Emirates Organization for Human Rights sent a letter to Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations Commissioner to intervene in order to save the prisoners of conscience in the prisons of the ruling regime in the Emirates.

“The World is living in one of its most difficult periods in modern history, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19, which affected millions of people and led to the deaths of thousands around the world,” the human rights organisation said in a statment received by Emirates Lakes.

“There are more than 35,000 cases of coronavirus in the UAE, according to the Ministry of Health, but the actual number of infections is three times more than the number declared.”

The Emirates organization for Human Rights stated that it is following with great concern the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic at Al Wathba prison in Abu Dhabi. It is recorded that there are 286 cases of coronavirus among the prisoners, including 30 prisoners from the ninth ward (B9) designated for prisoners of conscience.

The Organization stated that the prison authorities banned prison visits and declared the state of emergency in the notorious detention center, among clear and deliberate medical negligence. The infected prisoners were mixed with the other prisoners without providing the basic means of prevention or treatment.

The human rights organization stressed that what the UAE government practices against the prisoners of conscience in Al Wathba prison and the rest of the state’s prisons is an integrated criminal crime intended to get rid of opponents of government policy and human rights activists.

The Emirates Human Rights Organization said that the Emirati authorities must be held accountable for the safety of the prisoners of conscious at ALWathba prison.

The Organization called for urgent measures to be taken to pressure the UAE government to release the prisoners of conscience, provide them with appropriate treatment and enable them to return to their lives and live with their families and children.

For its part, the human rights organization “We Record” said that it had documented on the date of April 23, 2020 the emergence of the first positive case of the Coronavirus inside Al-Wathba prison in Abu Dhabi. The organization stressed then the need for the UAE authorities to take the necessary measures to limit its spread.

The organization stated that on May 28, 2020 public opinion was surprised by the announcement of the injury of 31 prisoners, including the 21-year-old Omani prisoner, Abdullah Awad al-Shamsi, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

In addition, some activists have confirmed to the organization “We record” that a Lebanese prisoner, serving a 10-year prison sentence in ward 6 named “Ahmad Sobh”, is contracted with coronavirus. The organization also learned that the Jordanian prisoner of conscience, Bahaa Adel Matar, was infected with the Coronavirus. Bahaa is serving a sentence of ten years as well as a fine of a million Emirati Dirhams.

In light of the importance and sanctity of the human right to life and health, the human rights organization stressed the need for the UAE authorities to take the necessary measures to protect the prisoners of Al Wathba Prison from Coronavirus and other diseases that will not find a fertile environment for proliferation better than prisons such as Al Wathba Prison. The danger is not limited to inmates, but it may also involve prison officials and visitors, including prison officials.

The “We Record” organization called on the authorities responsible for punitive and correctional facilities in the UAE to completely sterilize the punitive facility. Providing sterilizers and personal cleaning materials in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization, and in line with the minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.

The organization also called for providing comprehensive health care for the injured now and the necessary isolation procedures and working to reduce the number of prisoners to a degree that allows for isolation procedures, by releasing and pardoning the prisoners in misdemeanor cases in financial matters, and who have completed half of the other cases.

The organization stressed the necessity of subjecting new prisoners to detection, examination and isolation as soon as they came to verify that they are free of the virus, not to transfer prisoners from a penal facility to another facility, and to provide psychological support to the prisoners so that cases of panic do not occur between them.