A human rights centre calls on the UAE to stop its systematic policy against prisoners of conscience
The Emirates Center for Human Rights called on the UAE authorities to stop their systematic policy against the UAE detainees being held arbitrarily in its prisons.
This came in a comment by the Center on the decision of the UAE authorities to refer 13 prisoners of conscience whose sentences are nearing completion to the so-called counselling centres “in a new arbitrariness and a clear violation of their right to freedom.”
The Center stressed that the decision from Abu Dhabi constitutes “a crime in violation of international law that protects their basic rights, including their non-arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”
The Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center reported that the UAE authorities informed 13 prisoners of conscience to refer them to “counselling centres”, despite waiting for the end of their sentences within days and weeks.
The Center quoted private sources as saying that the Abu Dhabi authorities asked the targeted prisoners of conscience to sign a declaration stating that the prison sentences had ended and transferred them to the so-called “counselling centres”, bearing in mind that the detainees did not leave prison and were not transferred to any centres.
This information indicates that the authorities do not intend to release prisoners of conscience whose judicial prison sentences have expired and will continue their approach of detaining detainees indefinitely through counselling.
The Counseling Law approved in 2019 allows the UAE authorities to detain people arbitrarily indefinitely if they present a “terrorist risk,” as the law does not set any time limits and allows the authorities to detain a person for indefinite periods.
The law did not define “terrorist danger” clearly. It also gives the authorities the absolute right to identify persons with this capacity according to their desire and arrest them without legal or time restrictions.
The UAE authorities are taking advantage of this law to deprive prisoners of conscience of their right to leave prison and continue to detain them administratively under “counselling programs” for an indefinite period.
In some cases, the authorities detain people for a period exceeding the original sentence, such as what happened with the prisoner of conscience Abdullah Al-Helou, who was sentenced to 3 years in prison by the UAE judiciary.
However, the authorities were still detaining him despite the end of his sentence more than 4 years ago. The authorities detained him more than twice the length of his sentence under the pretext of “advising.”
It is noteworthy that the number of people detained by the UAE authorities, despite their sentences, rose during the past month to 11, and it is likely to increase significantly in the coming months, as the most significant number of prisoners of conscience will finish their sentences during the current year.
In its annual report a few days ago, Amnesty International highlighted the UAE’s continued detention of prisoners of conscience after the expiry of the prison sentences issued against them by judicial orders, under a law dealing with “advising to combat extremist ideology”, which may not be appealed.