UAE: The Number of Egyptians Detained Increases to 30; Reports of Mistreatment

18 Jun 2013

Alkarama received a distress call from the families of 15 Egyptians who were detained two weeks ago in the United Arab Emirates. The state security forces arrested them after they were called for investigation in early June. Fifteen other Egyptians had been arrested in December 2012 and January 2013, which brings the number of Egyptians detained in the UAE to 30. Alkarama has documented the cases of fifteen of them. The list includes preachers, muezzin, doctors, teachers, engineers and accountants. Most of them are over 45 years old and have worked in the UAE for more than 20 years.

The son of one of the detainees said that they went to the Foreign Ministry in Cairo right after the disappearance of his father. The Ministry told them that they had received similar inquiries from families of other Egyptians and that the UAE security apparatus had summoned them all for questioning without giving the reasons or subject of the investigation. They were then arrested. The Ministry told their families that they had sent a request to the UAE authorities to get information on the circumstances of the arrest of the Egyptians, but they had not yet responded to them.

The son of Rajab Abd-Rabbo, 52 years old, who was arrested on 3 June, told Alkarama that his father works as a teacher, had spent more than 25 years working in the UAE, and that he had not been involved in any security problems during that entire time. He said that they still do not know where he is held nor the reason for his detention. It is also not clear to them whether these arrests are connected to the earlier wave of arrests or not.

Alkarama also learned of the arrest of a journalist from the Al Khalij Newspaper, Muhammad Mussa – 47 years old, who was arrested on 4 June. That was after he was prohibited from traveling and his passport was confiscated on 2 June. Two days later he was summoned to the Preventive Security Service in Al Sharjah, and from there he was moved to Dubai. Since then, his location and place of detention is unknown. Mussa is the second Egyptian journalist to be detained in the UAE after Ahmad Jaafar from the Al Itihad newspaper in the end of December 2012.

Dr. Ahmad Abdallah Zaza, spokesman for the Association of Families of the Egyptian Detainees in the UAE, said that they still don't know the nature of the charges against their relatives, neither for the first group that was arrested in December and January, nor for the group that was arrested earlier this month. They do not know where the second group is detained. Meanwhile, the first group containing 15 detainees was moved last Wednesday to Al Sadr Prison in Abu Dhabi and their families were allowed to visit them, although the reasons for their detention and the charges against them have still not been announced.

During his visit last Saturday, one of the detainees in the first group told his son that they are suffering from mistreatment inside the prison and that they are only given one uniform which they are forced to clean and dry, all the while standing naked. He also said that the prison administration feeds them the remains of other prisoners and they are not permitted to communicate with each other except during prayer time, on the grounds that they "have charges against them."

Alkarama is deeply concerned for the safety of the Egyptian detainees and fears that they are at grave risk of torture or mistreatment, especially since they are being held arbitrarily in an unknown location and isolated from the world. These arrests and this treatment of detainees raises a lot of questions about the extent of the UAE's regard for international law, human rights, and in particular the right to a free and fair trial, and the right to be informed of the reasons for detention.

Alkarama reiterates its demands that the UAE authorities either end the detention of the 30 Egyptians who are arbitrarily detained or immediately inform them of the charges against them and bring them to trial. It also demands the disclosure of the location of detention of the most recent 15 detainees, permission to visit them to check on their safety, improvements in the conditions of their detention, and provision of a defense for them with a guarantee of a fair trial.

List of the new detainees in the UAE

a. Rajab Abd-Rabbo – Physics Teacher – 48 years old – residing in Al Sharjah

b. Abd-al-Hakam Muhammad Fathi Zarzurah – 42 years old – control engineer at the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority – residing in Dubai

c. Izzat Al-Nimr – 45 years old – Accountant – residing in Dubai

d. Hamdi Nasr – 54 years old – Imam and Preacher at the Ministry of Endowments – residing in Al Sharjah

e. Ayman Zahran – 38 years old – Marketer – residing in Al Sharjah

f. Ahmad Assam Mahmud – 43 years old – Administrative Supervisor at Al Arqam School – residing in Ajman

g. Muhammad Rifaat – 43 years old – Financial auditor at Dubai Islamic Bank – residing in 'Ajman

h. Ayman Al-Adawi Al-Adawi – 41 years old – English Language Teacher at the Police School in Al Sharjah – residing in Ajman

i. Usamah Al-Far – 43 years old – Imam and Preacher at the Ministry of Endowments – residing in 'Ajman

j. Harbi Mahmud Harbi – 47 years old – Employee at the Charity Authority – residing in 'Ajman

k. Usamah Al-Ruwayni – 46 years old – Forces Engineer – residing in Abu Dhabi

l. Muhammad Mussa – 45 years old – Journalist for Al Bayan newspaper – residing in Al Sharjah

m. Muhammad Al-Jamili – 35 years old – Administrator in the Ministry of Education – residing in Dubai

n. Ahmad Nasif – 52 years old – Financial Controller at the Ministry of the Interior – residing in Abu Dhabi

o. Nasir Ibrahim – 52 years old – Physics Teacher – residing in Ras Al Khaymah

For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).

United Arab Emirates

Arbitrary Detention