Trial of UAE Bloggers Draws Criticism

Amnesty International, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Front Line Defenders and Human Rights Watch said the trial of 5 bloggers charged with posting insulting blogs about UAE leaders, calling for an election boycott, and urging demonstrations has been plagued by procedural flaws and violated the most basic defense rights of the accused. The families of the defendants pleaded for the release of the activists as well, and have claimed that when the authorities arrested the men, they were held incommunicado for days without access to a lawyer or their families.

“Every moment that these men spend behind bars simply for exercising their right to free speech is a miscarriage of justice,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at HRW. The UAE attorney general said the defendants were being held on suspicion of “committing crimes of instigation, breaking laws and perpetrating acts that pose a threat to state security, undermining the public order, opposing the government system, and insulting the president, the vice-president, and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi”.