Human Rights

Human rights groups condemn trial of 94 people in UAE

rahimi20130327091838573

A coalition of international human rights groups has described the trial of 94 people on charges of trying to overthrow the United Arab Emirates’ government as ‘flagrantly unfair.’

The four human rights groups – The (Persian) Gulf Center for Human Rights, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies – released a report on Monday, calling the proceedings as being in “flagrant disregard of fair trial guarantees.”

The report also referred to the failure by the judge to launch an investigation into “credible” allegations of torture of defendants.

The coalition added that the pre-trial torture is in flagrant violation of the human rights, adding, “We further believe that the court, having heard the allegations of torture, failed to order any investigation of the allegations or to address them in any way.”

Charged with plotting to topple the United Arab Emirates government, the 94 people were arrested last year. If found guilty, all of the detainees, including 13 women, would face up to 15 years in prison.

Attorney General Salem Saeed Kubaish said in a January statement that the detainees “established and ran an organization seeking to oppose the basic principles of the UAE system of governance and to seize power.”

Back to top button