UN expert calls on UAE to release prominent human rights defenders
The five activists are accused of trying to overthrow the Emirati government, but the United Nations says they should have never been detained in the first place.
A United Nations rapporteur called on the United Arab Emirates Friday to immediately release five human rights campaigners detained since 2013.
Mohamed al-Mansoori, Hassan Mohammed Al-Hammad, Hadif Rashed Abdullah al-Owais, Ali Saeed Al-Kindi and Salim Hamdoon Al-Shahhi were among a group of 94 lawyers, rights advocates and academics accused of plotting to overthrow the Emirati government.
In July 2013, 69 of the defendants in the “UAE-94” case were sentenced, eight of them in absentia, up to 15 years in prison.
The detentions came amid Abu Dhabi’s crackdown on an Islamist association called al-Islah and other activists calling for political reform in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
