One year on, award-winning human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor's whereabouts remain unknown

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The authoritiesin the United Arab Emirates (UAE) should reveal the whereabouts of prominenthuman rights defender and citizen-journalist Ahmed Mansoor and releasehim immediately and unconditionally, over two dozen human rights organisationssaid today. He is being held for his peaceful human rights work.

20 March 2018marks one year since security forces arbitrarily arrested Mansoor, winner ofthe Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015, at his home inAjman. The UAE authorities have continued to detain him in an unknown location,despite condemnation from UNhuman rights experts and independent human rights organisations.

“The authoritieshave subjected Ahmed Mansoor to enforced disappearance since his wife last sawhim in September 2017. They must reveal his whereabouts to his familyand grant him regular access to them and to a lawyer of his choosing,” said KhalidIbrahim, Executive Director of the Gulf Centre forHuman Rights (GCHR).

Following hisarrest on 20 March 2017, the authorities announced that he is facingspeech-related charges that include using social media websites to “publishfalse information that harms national unity.”

On 28 March2017, a group of UN humanrights experts called on the UAE government to releaseMansoor immediately, describing his arrest as “a direct attack on thelegitimate work of human rights defenders in the UAE.” They said that theyfeared his arrest “may constitute an act of reprisal for his engagement with UNhuman rights mechanisms, for the views he expressed on social media, includingTwitter, as well as for being an active member of human rights organisations.”

“Mansoor’sarbitrary detention is a violation of his right to freedom of expression andopinion. The UAE authorities must drop all charges against him and releasehim immediately,” said Carles Torner, Executive Director of PEN International.

Since hisarrest, Mansoor has not been allowed to make telephone calls to his family andhas been allowed only two short visits with his wife, on 3 April and 17September 2017, both under strict supervision. He was brought from an unknownplace of detention to the State Security Prosecutor’s office in Abu Dhabi forboth visits. The authorities have refused to inform his family about his placeof detention and have ignored their requests for further visits.

In February2018, a group of international human rights organisationscommissioned two lawyers from Ireland to travel to Abu Dhabi to seek access toMansoor. The UAE authorities gave the lawyers conflicting information aboutMansoor’s whereabouts. The Interior Ministry, the official body responsible forprisons and prisoners, denied any knowledge of his whereabouts and referred thelawyers to the police. The police also said they had no information about hiswhereabouts. The lawyers also visited Al-Wathba Prison in Abu Dhabi followingstatements made by the authorities after Mansoor’s arrest, which suggested thathe was held being held there. However, the prison authorities told the lawyers therewas nobody matching Mansoor’s description in the prison.

“Instead of protecting Mansoor, the authorities have insteaddetained him for a year with hardly any access to his family and no access to alawyer of his choosing. Their contempt for human rights defenders and brazendisregard for their obligations under international human rights law is trulyshocking.” said Sima Watling, UAE Researcher atAmnesty International’s Middle East Regional Office.

Background

A dozensecurity officers arrested Mansoor at his home in Ajman in the pre-dawn hoursof 20 March 2017 and took him to an undisclosed location. The securityofficials conducted an extensive search of his home and took away all of the family’smobile phones and laptops, including those belonging to his young children.

The authoritiesrefused to disclose any information about Mansoor to his family, who had noinformation about him until a statement was issued on the Foreign Affairs Ministry’swebsite on 29 March 2017 claiming that he was in detention in the CentralPrison, also known as Al-Wathba, in Abu Dhabi. But the authorities have failedto confirm his place of detention to his family.

Since hisarrest, according to informed sources, Mansoor is believed to have been held insolitary confinement without any access to a lawyer of his choosing. Prolongedand indefinite solitary confinement can amount to torture or other cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment under international human rights law. Humanrights organisations have also received reports from informed sources thatMansoor may be being subjected to other forms of torture or ill-treatment indetention.

The UAEauthorities have said in their public statements that Mansoor is accused ofusing social media websites to “publish false information that harms nationalunity.” The UAE’s official news agency, WAM, said on the day of his arrest thathe is also accused of using social media websites to “promote [a] sectarian andhate-incited agenda;” and “publish false and misleading information that…damages the country’s reputation.”

The statementclassified these as “cybercrimes,” indicating that the charges against him maybe based on alleged violations of the UAE’s repressive 2012 cybercrime law,which authorities have used to imprison numerous activists and which providesfor long prison sentences and severe financial penalties.

In the weeksleading up to his arrest, Mansoor had used Twitter to call for the release of thehuman rights activist Osama Al-Najjar, who remains in prison despitehaving completed a three-year prison sentence in March 2017 for his peacefulactivities on Twitter; as well as the release of prominent academic andeconomist Dr Nasser bin Ghaith,sentenced in March 2017 to 10 years for his Twitter posts. Mansoor had alsoused his Twitter account to draw attention to human rights violations acrossthe Middle East region, including in Egypt and Yemen. He had also signed ajoint letter with other activists in the region calling on Arab League leaders,meeting in Jordan in March 2017 for the Arab Summit, to release politicalprisoners in their countries. He also has a blog, which he usedto write on various topics, including articles about the human rightsviolations that he is subjected to because of his peaceful activities, as wellas about the situation of freedom of expression and prisoners of conscience inthe UAE.

Mansoor is a member of GCHR’s Advisory Board and a member of the advisory committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle Eastand North Africa Division.

The mission to locateMansoor was sponsored by GCHR, the Martin Ennals Foundation, Front LineDefenders, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), as well as FIDHand the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under their partnership, theObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

The undersigned human rights organisations call on the UAEauthorities to:

· Immediately andunconditionally release Ahmed Mansoor, as he is detained solely for hispeaceful human rights activities;

· Immediatelydisclose his whereabouts and ensure that he is held in an official place ofdetention;

· Pending his release, ensure that he is protected from torture andother ill-treatment, including prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement which can amount to tortureor other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and

· Pending hisrelease, ensure that he is treated in line with the UN Standard Minimum Rulesfor the Treatment of Prisoners, including by giving him regular access to hisfamily and a lawyer of his choosing, as well as to any medical care he mayrequire.

Signed:

Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain

AmnestyInternational

Arabic Networkfor Human Rights Information (ANHRI)

Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia

English PEN

Front Line Defenders

Gulf Centre forHuman Rights (GCHR)

Human Rights First

Human Rights Watch

International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), under the Observatory for the Protectionof Human Rights Defenders

InternationalService for Human Rights (ISHR)

Maharat Foundation

Martin Ennals Foundation

Moroccan Association for Human Rights

PENInternational

ReportersWithout Borders

Scholars at Risk

Tunisian Association for Academic Freedoms

Tunis Center for Press Freedom

Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights

Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH)

Tunisian Organisation against Torture

Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State WorldOrganisation Against Torture (OMCT),under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders