A police state is hiding behind the visage of the “Land of happiness”, a concept that the authorities in the UAE claim to adopt.
The land of happiness cannot stand some tweets, sentencing the one who wrote them to 10 years in prison. It is a state that amends the law to prevent sharing posts and downloads from websites. The UAE is the highest ranking country in internet surveillance worldwide.
It is hard to point out violations committed in the UAE, as it is the case in most of the Arab world, not because of the absence of violations but rather because of the absence of independent press and dissenting voices.
UAE kept up the work of persecuting and imprisoning human rights advocates. Moreover, it hinders releasing them after the fulfillment of their sentences. It also continues to put academics and journalists behind bars, along with banning a theater play produced by a number of young people without announcing the reason. For an article that did not please the authorities, a whole newspaper was banned from circulation.
New legislation was adopted which states that an internet user shall be imprisoned in case of sharing or even reading more than once content not allowed in the country.
Here are some examples of violations against freedom of expression and press freedom in the UAE during 2018
Violations Against Academics and Human Rights Advocates
Supporting the verdict against prominent human rights activist Ahmed Mansour
- On the last day of 2018, a ten years prison sentence and a fine of one million Derham (about 270,000 Dollars) against the prominent activist Ahmed Mansour was upheld. The court ordered to put the defendant under surveillance for three years after the fulfillment of his sentence. Mansour was accused of publishing false news that damage national unity, social peace, and the state’s reputation.
In March 2017, Mansour was arrested, confined in a solitary cell, deprived of meeting his lawyer and underwent illtreatment until he was tried.
Mansour is a member of the Advisory Board of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), the laureate of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights defenders in 2015, Mansour is also a member of the Advisory Committee in Human Rights Watch’s the Middle East and North Africa department.
Weeks before Mansour’s arrest, he tweeted calling for the release of Osama al-Naggar, a human rights activist, and Nasser ben Ghaith, the prominent shcolar and economist, who was sentenced to ten years in March 2017 for his tweets.
Osama al Naggar is still in jail
Since March 2017, the UAE authorities refuse to release the human rights activist, Osama al Naggar, though he terminated his sentence which started from 2014.
In 2014, al Naggar sent tweets to Interior Minister expressing his concern for the ill-treatment which his father undergoes. It is worth mentioning that Naggar’s father is sentenced to 10 years in a case called “UAE 94”.
In March 2017, a police officer stormed into Osama’s house, arresting him, hiding his place for 4 days on which he underwent torture. He was later tried and sentenced to 3 years, moreover, he was deprived of his right to appeal.
State security in the Supreme Court of al Etahadia decided to expand his detention after the termination of his sentence, in accordance to a demand submitted by Public Prosecution, claiming that he is a threat, therefore he has to be confined in another place inside the prison called: counseling center.
Pardoning Mathew Hedges
Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal handed down a life sentence against Mathew Hedges, a British researcher, under accusations of espionage. A presidential pardon was issued to release him 5 days after the issuance of the verdict. On the 5th of May, Hedges, a Ph.D. student, writing research about the UAE’s foreign policy and local security in the post Arab spring period, was arrested. He was detained in a solitary cell for 5 months without posing accusations or meeting an attorney. He was conditionally released on 29th of October, yet, he was not permitted to leave the country until the court session.
Hedges aimed at acquiring a PhD from Durham University, but he was arrested on charges of espionage.
Legalizing repression
On the 13th of August, the president of UAE issued amendments on Al Etehadi law no. 5 of 2012 on cybercrime. The amendments included penalties of 4 years imprisonment and a fine of 4 million Derham (around one million and 90 thousand dollars). Amendments target whoever directs, supervises or publishes on websites, with loose accusations, for example, jeopardizing state security and its interests, or damaging public security.
The law imposes penalties on whomever downloads or shares or revisits a content published on terrorist sites or illegal associations or organizations sites.
The amendments allow persecuting those who express their opinion openly or bloggers under the accusation of “damaging public security”, it also allows authorities to pursue website visitors and those who share or retweet.
Violations against journalists and press
Tayssir al Naggar
On the 27th of June 2018, Magda Horani, the wife of Tayssir al Naggar, a Jordanian journalist, detained in al Wathba prison in UAE, launched fundraising to pay the bail imposed on her husband, which reached 500 thousand Derham to release him after the termination of his sentence in December this year.
The Jordanian journalist, suffers from kidney disease, in his prison, besides a disease in his eyes which may lead to losing his sight as he does not see sunlight.
The Supreme Ethadya Court in Abu Dhabi supported, on 19th June 2017, the verdict of sentencing the journalist to three years in jail and bailing him 500 thousand Derham (around 136 dollars), and exiling him after the termination of his penalty. His appeal was rejected and his accusation was “insulting the state’s symbols”.
Security forces in UAE arrested Tayssir al Naggar on 13th December 2015. His arrest was not uncovered until 22nd January 2016, when his wife, Magda Horani, was able to talk to him on phone after being transferred to al Wathba prison. Horani knew from her husband that UAE authorities investigated him about posts he published in July 2014, a year before he went to work in UAE.
Banning the circulation of a newspaper
The UAE authorities banned, on 24th November 2018, the circulation of Al Arab newspaper, issued from London, printed in Dubai, because of an article of an Iraqi chief editor, as he criticized journalists and newspapers that beg the approval of princes and presidents concerning the murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi.
In an article titled “Repeating old press mistakes in the digital age”, published on the website of the newspaper, the writer mentioned a story about a journalist who used to beg the deceased Iraqi president “Saddam Hussein” during the nineties. He compared this journalist with other journalists who are begging and lying in the case of Khashoggi’s murder, calling them shameless and deformed.
Banning a theatrical play
On 20th January 2018, a group of theatrical young people in the Gulf released a documentary on YouTube channel announcing that their play “Sewar Shoeib” was banned in Abu Dhabi, claiming that all demanded permissions were canceled in accordance to “supreme orders”.
The UAE authorities canceled the primary of ‘Sewar Shoeib’, presented by the Kuwaiti theatrical artist Shoeib Rashed. The play was to be performed on 22nd of September 2017 in Abu Dhabi after it has been banned in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
The executive director, Thamer Mohamed, said that he received a call, after performing the play in Masqat, informing him that the play is banned in Abu Dhabi, adding that the source told him “it is according to supreme orders”.
The managers of the play decided to cancel their performance in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain after being banned in Abu Dhabi.
“Sewar Shoeib” is a satirical program, presented by the Kuwaiti Shoeib Rashed. It was launched in 2014 on youtube channel and it was a success. The play was performed in Kuwait, Masqat, Qatar, before being banned in Abu Dhabi.
Torture in Prison
Mariam al Baloushi, a prisoner in al Wathba prison, leaked an audio record sending a call for help to rescue her and other female prisoners from an “inhuman prison”.
Mariam added in an audio sent to the Arab Organization for Human Rights, published on 30 November 2018, that the situation in the prison caused health problems for a number of female prisoners who never receive proper health care. Cancer returned to Aliaa Abdul Rahman because of the situation in prison.
Mariam uncovered the overcrowding cells, as the authorities confine more than 80 prisoners in a cell that is prepared for eight, not to mention the absence of hygiene and terrible food.
Mariam al Baloushi was arrested in November 2015, she was a student in the last year in Faculty of Technology. She was accused of supporting terrorism after donating to a Syrian man.
Mariam underwent torture and rape threats, moreover, she signed papers without knowing its content. She was tried and sentenced to 5 years.
