UAE human rights activist gets ten years imprisonment

GCHR confirms shocking news that our board member @Ahmed_Mansoor, @martinennals winner, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in #UAE . Total disregard for fair trial standards & right to free expression #FreeAhmed @HHShkMohd @AntonioPanzeri @ForstMichel @StateDept @FCOHumanRights pic.twitter.com/u35T9dUNuV

— GC4HR (@GulfCentre4HR) May 30, 2018

Translated from Dutch NOS TV, 30 April 2018:

In the United Arab Emirates, human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor has been sentenced to a ten-year prison sentence. He also has to pay an around 250,000 euros fine.

Mansoor has been locked up for more than a year; he was removed from his bed in March last year and has since been detained at an unknown location. International human rights organizations have condemned his detention widely and claim that he was arrested because of his criticism of the government and because of his contacts with human rights organizations. …

Human Rights Watch says in a first reaction that the verdict shows that the country can not deal with “even the mildest criticism by a real reformer”.

Torture

Human rights organizations wrote in a joint statement in March that they have indications that Mansoor was isolated in a cell all this time. He is said to also have been exposed to other forms of torture. Contact with his family was barely facilitated and the authorities did not allow him to have his own lawyer. Two lawyers from Ireland who were engaged by the organizations were misguided in the United Arab Emirates, so a meeting did not happen.