United Arab Emirates: Al-Junahi remains subject to secret detention

Alkarama  made in the past requests to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (communiqué of 24 January 2008) and the Special Rapporteur on Torture (communiqué of 23 January 2009). On 24 April 2009, Alkarama once again addressed the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to inform them that Al-Junahi's situation remained unchanged since his extradition to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Saudi Arabian Security Services, on 24 November 2008,. 

Al-Junahi continues to be held by UAE security services in an unknown location, since more than 150 days. 

Despite their continued efforts, his family has been unable to obtain the official confirmation of his arrest and detention by the UAE authorities. 

During a mission to the UAE in mid-April 2009 Alkarama discovered that Al-Junahi has not been the subject of any legal proceedings nor has he ever been presented before a judge to be legally charged. 

It is therefore clear that, having been arbitrarily detained for 19 months in Saudi Arabia, it is also the case that in the UAE, Al-Junahi is deprived of his liberty in an equally arbitrary manner; for reasons that remain unknown to his family. 

A reminder:

Khalil Abdul Rahman Al-Junahi, 37, is a citizen of the United Arab Emirates and was a lawful resident in Saudi Arabia where he studied religious sciences for several years. 

He was arrested by the Saudi intelligence services (Al-Mabahit Al-Aama) on 26 April 2007 at Riyadh airport. His family could not find out where he was detained and were only able to visit him at Alisha prison near Riyadh three months later. The authorities claimed that there was no specific allegation against him; that it "was only a preventive "and that he would soon be released. 

The family initially tried to get an update of his situation from the UAE's Ministry of the Interior. The officials initially denied his release by the Saudi authorities. Based on the insistence of his family, the Emirates recognized his detention two weeks later. It was later discovered that his detention was for investigative reasons, claiming that it is "normal procedure and that he would certainly be released in two weeks at the latest". There was no further explanation. 

His current denial of freedom is therefore clearly a violation by the UAE's domestic law and that of international law set out in the Declaration universal human rights.