United Arab Emirates: Arbitrary detention and unfair trial of Dr. Mansoor Al Shamsi

Dr Mansoor Jassem Al Shamsi was born on 5 May 1965. He is married with four children, and lives in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. He has a Doctorate in Philosophy and Political science from the University of Exeter (UK) and has held various responsibilities in his country’s administration public service.

At the time of his arrest he was working as senior advisor to the Ministry of Labour. He is also a founding member of the Writers' Union of the United Arab Emirates and the uthor of numerous articles and contributions.

Dr Al Shamsi is known in his country for his poetry, his contributions to the local and regional press and the critical political position he sometimes adopts towards the authorities in the regional media.

Thus, in the wake of certain public interventions on issues of regional policy, he was arrested for the first time on 26 November 2006 at his home by agents of State Security (Amn Addawla) without a warrant, and without being informed of the reasons for his arrest. His home was searched without a search warrant and his personal papers and books were confiscated.

After this first arrest, Dr Al Shamsi was detained incommunicado for 86 days before being released without charge or legal process on 20 February 2007.

During this period, his family were never informed of his fate, the authorities consistently refused to provide any information on the reasons for his arrest and detention - in complete violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure which states that the accused must be brought before a prosecutor within 48 hours after his or her arrest. He was also tortured during this period and subjected to all sorts of abuse.

Before his release, he was ordered by the authorities to refrain from making any oral or written intervention in the media and any further engagement in political activities, which he has refused.

This is certainly why he was rearrested by the same services on 6 May 2007 and held incommunicado for 22 days until 28 May 2007, date of his submission to the floor of the Federal Supreme Court.

During this second detention, Dr Al Shamsi reports having been submitted to the same conditions as the first time, and having been even more severely tortured. He reports, in particular, of having been held in total isolation in an icy cell where he slept on the concrete floor, being deprived of sleep for several days, beaten, insulted, and threatened on several occasions.

Charged with endangering state security, his case was referred to the Federal Supreme Court on 25 June 2007.

In the absence of evidence to justify the charges brought against him, the only elements of the criminal charges filed were the minutes prepared by his torturers containing confessions extracted under torture.

Although Dr Al Shamsi has written a long detailed letter addressed to the Court in which he described the conditions of his detention and the torture he suffered, mentioning his torturers by name, it has never been taken into account by the Federal Supreme Court judges.

Dr Al Shamsi’s trial has constituted a series of violations of his fundamental right to a fair trial. From the first hearing, the judge declared the trail in camera, and observers and family members of the accused were prohibited access to the Court.

The only witnesses called by the court were State Security officers, and notably the officer who conducted the preliminary investigation and torture sessions, who was cited by prosecutors as the main witness for the prosecution.

Despite repeated requests to the public prosecutor by the defence to produce evidence of its allegations, and after having declared to the Court its readiness to do so, the prosecution then sought refuge behind the secret nature of such evidence, that the State security services could not disclose, not even to the Court.

Dr Al-Shamsi’s lawyer was then invited by the trial court to prove the innocence of his client in clear violation of the fundamental principle of presumption of innocence.

Dr Al-Shamsi was finally sentenced on 1 October 2007 to five years' imprisonment, after an unfair trial, marred by serious irregularities during which his lawyer was not allowed to enter a plea and was only able to submit a written brief.

Supreme Court decisions are not subject to appeal in violation of the principle of the right to a double level of jurisdiction.

Dr Al Shamsi’s 86-day incommunicado detention without charges resulting from his first arrest, as well as his current detention following his conviction in the wake of an unfair trail are obviously, in the light of the facts exposed, motivated by his views and political statements and are thus undoubtedly arbitrary.