United Arab Emirates state security officers have subjected detainees to systematic mistreatment, including torture, say hand-written letters from detainees smuggled out of jails, Alkarama, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today.

The groups obtained 22 statements written by some of the 94people on trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. The mistreatment described in the letters is consistent with other allegations of torture at UAE state security facilities, and indicates that torture is a systematic practice at these facilities.

The statements describe conditions in pre-trial detention in varying levels of detail.  Several detainees describe mistreatment that clearly meets the definition of torture as outlined in article 1 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which the UAE ratified in July 2012. “I was beaten with a plastic tube all over my body,” one detainee said. “I was tied to a chair and threatened with electrocution if I didn’t talk. I was insulted and humiliated.”

“The UAE’s judicial system will lose all credibility if these allegations are swept under the carpet while the government’s critics are put behind bars,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Unless the government investigates and takes action, it will be hard to avoid concluding that torture is routine practice in the UAE.”

On March 4, 2013, at the first trial hearing, some defendants told the judge they had been seriously ill-treated during months in detention. They described prolonged solitary confinement, exposure to continuous fluorescent lighting that made it difficult to sleep, inadequate heating, and hooding when they were taken from their cells — including while being taken to the toilet or for interrogation. They said they had been repeatedly insulted by prison guards. People present in the court said that the judge ordered that the detainees undergo medical examinations, but these did not take place.

The letters obtained by the rights groups indicate that these forms of mistreatment were systematic. All of the detainees who described their conditions said they were held in solitary confinement where they were constantly exposed to bright light in their cells.

All but six said they were subjected to extremes of temperature and that men who claimed to be state security officials interrogated the detainees while they were blindfolded. Two described being threatened with electrocution.

“I heard muffled sounds and screams, suggesting systematic torture, knocking on the iron doors to prevent me from sleeping, and very loud noises from the AC hatch, like airplane engines,” another detainee said.

The allegations in the letters are consistent with previous allegations of torture. Amnesty International documented credible claims of torture in 2003 and raised concerns over the treatment of a UAE national in 2007, along with a US-Lebanese national in 2009.

In September 2012, a Syrian national, Abdulelah al-Jadani, told Human Rights Watch that officers at a state security facility beat and whipped him, held him in painful stress positions, and hung him from the wall by his arms and legs. He also said he was subjected to severe sleep deprivation and extreme cold in his cell.

At the time Al-Jadani’s allegations emerged, the whereabouts of the Emirati political detainees were unknown, and local sources told the organizations that it was likely they were being held in the same state security facility where al-Jadani alleges he was tortured. On September 6, six of the 94 detainees appeared before a judge at the Supreme Court. The son of one of the detainees was in the courtroom and reported that they seemed dishevelled, disoriented, and distressed.

Other detainees have also alleged that they have been tortured.  One is Saud Kulaib, who is being held in Al Sader jail, but spent five months in incommunicado detention between December 29 and May 27. Since his move to Al Sader, Kulaib has told family members and other inmates that he spent all of that time in solitary confinement, and that he was subjected to extremes of temperature and sleep deprivation.

He also alleges that officers beat him, sliced his hand open with a razor blade, threatened to pull out his fingernails and told him that his wife was in detention and on hunger strike:

“I was suspended several times from the legs, by an iron rod, in an extremely painful position, between two chairs while my hands were tied with an iron chain, leaving marks that are still visible today,” said Kulaib.

“I was then severely beaten on the legs for more than half an hour. Next cold water was poured over my head and body. At times my clothes were taken off, leaving only my under-shorts, to torture me in the manner already described.”

It is not clear what charges Kulaib is facing. Local sources believe that his detention relates to comments he made on social media about the alleged torture of one of the 94 defendants, Ahmed al-Suweidi. On June 10, 2012 Kulaib posted a comment on Twitter in which he said that al-Suweidi was “being exposed to severe torture under the supervision of a high official.”

In September, Alkarama and Human Rights Watch documented the enforced disappearance of al-Suweidi for a period of six months. Local activists believe that a forced confession from al-Suweidi forms the basis of the prosecution’s case in the trial. On March 4, during the first session of the trial,   al-Suweidi, told the judges: “I know that what I’m going to say may cost my life, but I deny the charges and I ask the court to protect my life and the life of my family,” witnesses who were in the courtroom said.

“Not investigating such serious allegations of torture would add to the litany of the violation of the 94 defendants’ rights, from the vague the charges brought against them for their association with al-Islah, or the Reform and Social Guidance Association, to their rights of defence being repeatedly flouted,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Another group of 30 people accused of operating a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood have also alleged that they were tortured. On June 19, UAE authorities referred them for trial at the Federal Supreme Court. The authorities have not released their names, although local sources believe they include 13 Egyptians detained between November 21 and January 7.

The son of one of the detainees, Dr Ali Sonbul, told Human Rights Watch that family members of the detainees who have visited the men in prison told him that they are being kept in solitary confinement and have been subjected to “psychological and physical torture.”

To mark the International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture on June 26, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Alkarama call on UAE authorities to:

•    Provide independent forensic medical examinations to defendants who say they have been tortured; •    Exclude any evidence obtained by torture from any trial proceedings; •    Ensure  prompt, independent, and impartial investigations  into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, and other serious human rights violations and bring those responsible  to justice in proceedings that comply with international fair trial standards; and •    Ensure that victims of torture, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention receive full reparations. •    Provide for the independent inspection of all detention centers. •    Ratify the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

On  June 7, the foreign minister, Dr Anwar Gargash, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that any allegation of torture in the UAE would be “dealt with in accordance with the laws of our country and the measures provided by the law will be taken in case of violation.”

“To prove his intentions to the international community, Dr Gargash should order investigations into all allegations of torture and mistreatment committed by the state security services, including those made by the UAE 94,” said Rachid Mesli, director of Alkarama’s legal department.

For further information, please contact Elizabeth Berton-Hunter 416-363-9933 ext 332 bberton-hunter@amnesty.ca

The strategy extends far beyond! Read more reports on UAE

UAE behind Egypt coup d’état: Cash and loans from UAE to crush ‘Arab Uprising’.  Strategy beyond the borders!

UAE: Arming up with mercenaries!
What possible security risks could have motivated the UAE to hire outside help?

Photograph: The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of ‘Blackwater Worldwide’, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom. Read Article at New York Times: Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi hired Erik Prince to build a fighting force

Lieutenant General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed AlNahyan – The Making of a Police State http://www.boycottuae.com/uaeblog/sheikh-saif-bin-zayed-al-nahyan-the-making-of-a-police-state

Boycott-UAE  Video:

The man in this video, seen torturing an Afghani businessman, is none other than Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, the brother of the President of United Arab Emirates. The UAE interior minister, Saif bin Zayed al Nahyan, is also one of Sheikh Issa’s brothers. Policemen (ADPolice) in uniform pin the victim to the floor as the sheikh uses an automatic rifle, whips, electric cattle prods, wooden planks with protruding nails and even his Mercedes SUV to torture his victim.

Sheikh Issa was acquitted in an Emirati court for the incident. The court ruled that “he was not responsible for the crime, that the sheikh was under the influence of drugs (medicine) that left him unaware of his actions”. [Warning: the images may be disturbing] View Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks_MIRvmx9E

Read Featured Report: UAE PRISON
http://www.uaeprison.com/sheikh_nahyan_uae_shocking_torture_video.htm

(Brussels)– The European Parliament on October 26, 2012, adopted a resolution on the deteriorating human rights situation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

It is the first time that the European Parliament has formally commented on the UAE’s human rights record, which has worsened significantly in recent months. The Parliament in Strasbourg adopted the resolution despite vigorous lobbying from the UAE. The UAE’s ambassador to the European Union said in a letter to parliament members that the resolution could “needlessly damage EU-UAE relations.”

Since the beginning of the year UAE authorities have detained without charge scores of civil society activists, some of whom have ties to a nonviolent Islamist group, Al-Islah– including prominent human rights lawyers, judges, and student leaders.

The government has also deported and harassed human rights defenders, denied legal assistance to political detainees, and intimidated and deported lawyers seeking to provide detainees with legal assistance. The government also closed the Dubai office of the Washington-based National Democratic Institute and the Abu Dhabi office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a German political foundation.

In its resolution, the European Parliament:

·       “Expresses great concern about assaults, repression and intimidation against human rights defenders, political activists and civil society actors within the United Arab Emirates who peacefully exercise their basic rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and assembly”;

·       “Calls on the authorities of the United Arab Emirates to halt the ongoing crackdowns immediately”;

·       “Calls for the unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience and activists, including human rights defenders”; and

·       “Calls on the authorities of the United Arab Emirates to conduct thorough and impartial investigations into the assaults and public threats made against [prominent human rights defender] Ahmed Mansoor, and all the other cases of harassment and assault”.

In line with the EU Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, which which was adopted by foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states on June 25, the resolution calls on the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European institutions “to place human rights at the centre of its relations with all third countries, including strategic partners, with special emphasis on the next EU-GCC Ministerial Meeting,” referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Editorial The Guardian, Friday 19 October 2012

Human rights are so essential to Britain’s foreign policy objectives that they are part of our DNA. That is what a Foreign Office spokesman said with a straight face when the foreign affairs select committee rightly criticised the government for refusing to back a boycott of the grand prix in Bahrain. Are they part of Alistair Burt’s DNA? The Middle East minister lavished praise and friendship this week on the United Arab Emirates in a speech to the 4th Abu Dhabi Investment Forum.

The UAE is many things to many people. It is home to 100,000 Britons. It is Britain’s 16th largest export market, with exports last year worth £4.7bn. By the same token, the Emiratis are all over Britain. Think the Emirates Skyline, the London Gateway, or Manchester City.

To some of its own citizens, the UAE presents another face, that of a petrified, authoritarian monarchy which cracks down on peaceful demonstrations, throws 64 political and human rights activists in prison, tortures some, strips others of their citizenship, and carries on in a manner which would make Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak glow with pride. In fact, when Mubarak’s security chief Omar Suleiman fled Egypt, it is no coincidence it was to the UAE that he went.

Its rulers are petrified because what is happening in the rest of the Arab world, and particularly Egypt, is also taking place there. Emirati society is close-knit and homogenous, and lacks the Sunni-Shia schism that plagues Bahrain, or Saudi Arabia. This means hardliners in federal government like Sheikh Khalifa’s half-brother Mohammed bin Zayed cannot blame Iran for trouble at home. They do blame the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation which the UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan denounced as an organisation encroaching on the sovereignty and integrity of nations. All that is encroaching on this Gulf state is the need for democratic reform. In the UAE’s case it was expressed moderately and non-violently in the form of a petition lodged with the president in March last year, demanding the establishment of an elected national assembly. Only 30% of UAE citizens are allowed to elect only half of the assembly members. The signatories were secular as well as Islamist, but the reaction to it was ferocious. Waves of arrests, detainees held without contact, lawyers arrested, solitary confinement and regular beatings.

What makes the UAE interesting is the cover of respectability Britain continues to give it. If it ignores the wishes of citizens, the UAE is sensitive to its international image, which Mr Burt protects and adorns. Is support for autocracy in the post-Arab spring world part of Britain’s DNA too? Mr Burt is also minister for north Africa , where Muslim Brotherhood governments are supported by Britain.