العربية
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates should immediately release Ahmed Mansoor, an award-winning human rights defender who is facing charges that violate his right to freedom of expression, a coalition of 20 human rights organizations said on Thursday (April 20, 2017), one month after his arrest.
Mansoor, who received the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015, has been in detention since March 20, 2017, facing speech-related charges that include using social media websites to “publish false information that harms national unity.”
“Ahmed Mansoor has an unimpeachable record as a defender of rights and freedoms, and every day he remains in prison will constitute a black mark on the UAE’s human rights record,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“Ahmed has worked tirelessly, at great personal cost to himself, to advocate for human rights in the UAE and the wider region. He should be immediately released and the authorities should end their harassment of him once and for all,” said Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office.
“Mansoor’s arrest and detention is extremely alarming because it represents a major assault on human rights defenders in the UAE and signals all-out repression in the country,” said Khalid Ibrahim, executive director at the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR). Mansoor is a member of GCHR’s Advisory Board.
The organizations stressed that UAE authorities should release Mansoor immediately, since the charges against him relate to his human rights work and his criticism of the authorities. They should give him immediate and regular access to his family and a lawyer of his choosing, and end the harassment of rights defenders and critics of the authorities, the human rights organizations concluded.