UN Investigators Targeted by UAE Reputation Smear Campaign
Two investigators from the United Nations (UN) were targeted in a smear campaign orchestrated by the Swiss intelligence agency Alp Services on behalf of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a European investigation based on leaked documents.
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (RTS) reported that Alp Services, based in Geneva, targeted the Tunisian Kamel Jendoubi and the Moroccan Ahmed Himmiche, former UN investigators on Yemen. These revelations are part of the Abu Dhabi Secrets investigation, which exposes the suspicious practices of Alp Services financed by the UAE.
The investigation revealed that the Abu Dhabi Secrets campaign, launched in 2018, aimed to incite and damage the reputations of the UAE’s so-called “enemies” in Switzerland and Europe.
Numerous individuals working in human rights, including those associated with the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, were specifically targeted. Kamel Jendoubi and Ahmed Himmiche were among them, identified under the operation named “Probus.”
The investigations highlighted UAE’s involvement in war crimes in Yemen, presented by Kamel Jendoubi and his team in Geneva in 2018. Alp Services subsequently offered its services to the UAE to attack Jendoubi and Himmiche. Detailed profiles were created, examining their personal, professional, educational, and political affiliations to find any potential vulnerabilities. The second phase of the smear campaign targeting Kamel Jendoubi began in early 2019.
Jendoubi expressed anger and disappointment at the lack of response from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding the campaign directed against him. He emphasized the challenges UN institutions face when dealing with financially and diplomatically powerful countries, highlighting the undue pressure that hinders a firm response to the actions of rogue states.
The former Tunisian minister also raised concerns about companies like Alp Services in Switzerland, considering Switzerland’s reputation as the seat of the United Nations and various international organizations.
Alp Services refused to respond to RTS’s inquiries and dismissed the investigation as baseless, while an official UAE source described the investigations as biased and unfounded.
