This video is called Human Rights Abuse in the United Arab Emirates on BBC World News.
By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:
Take sheikh to task on torture, PM told
Thursday 25 April 2013
Prime Minister David Cameron faced pressure today to take on the United Arab Emirates over its human rights abuses during President Khalifa bin Zayed’s state visit to Britain on Tuesday.
In a letter to Mr Cameron organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reprieve said the country was guilty of “discriminatory and disproportionate response to peaceful criticism, its severe violations of due process and fair trial rights, and credible reports of torture – including the alleged torture of three British nationals.”
The letter cites a number of specific incidents, including the alleged torture by Dubai police of three Britons – Grant Cameron, Karl Williams and Suneet Jeerh in July last year.
The three say they were subjected to beatings and electric shocks and forced to sign documents in Arabic which they could not not understand, before being charged with drugs offences.
The groups accuse the UAE of failing to properly investigate the alleged mistreatment in breach of international law instead proceeding with their trial, calling the police involved in their torture as witnesses against them.
The three Britons have pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a verdict is expected in the trial on Monday, the day before the sheikh’s arrival in Britain.
Reprieve investigator Kate Higham said: “Rolling out the red carpet for a regime which has tortured our fellow citizens will be seen as deeply unsettling by many Britons.
“It is therefore crucial that the torture of three British tourists by Dubai police, and the wider context of human rights abuses across the UAE, is at the top of the agenda during this visit.”
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I often wonder why these furious types don’t simply admit defeat, sell up and go somewhere gorgeous, sunny and under-the-surface-barbaric like Dubai.
Surely this would be ideal? Tons of expats to carouse with about how the old country has “gone down the dumper”. A beautiful climate, y’know, just like Britain in the olden days when everything was simply more brilliant and sensible and unspoiled? None of your boozy youth taking over the high street. And more importantly, literally no human rights, in fact no philosophical discussion or empathic thought afforded to criminals at all. Or to migrant workers, gay people, women or literally any human being without the upper hand in anygiven dispute.
But gosh, don’t the buildings get hammered up quickly? I watched the case recently of those three young Britons held in Dubai for seven months without trial, before being jailed for four years for allegedly possessing synthetic cannabis. The boys claim to have been tortured by police in the desert and in hotel rooms, had electric shocks and guns held to their head. Now they stew in cells, their human rights are negligible.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/appalled-by-the-fuss-over-human-rights-for-serial-killers-try-dubai-8700709.html
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