Activists detained in UAE, Bahrain for supporting Palestinian cause
ABU DHABI, Nov. 22 (YPA) – Human rights sources have revealed arrests of activists in the UAE and the Kingdom of Bahrain against the backdrop of their supporting the Palestinian cause in the midst of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
The UAE Detainees Advocacy Center said that the Abu Dhabi authorities arrested activist Mansour Al-Ahmadi, head of the Al-Quds Youth Committee in the UAE, who holds the title of “Al-Quds Ambassador.”
According to the center, the State Security Service in the capital, Abu Dhabi, summoned Al-Ahmadi for interrogation, and then he disappeared after that, as it is likely that the agency arrested him and transferred him to a secret prison.
The center quoted unnamed sources as saying that Al-Ahmadi was subjected to enforced disappearance, as the authorities have not yet allowed him to communicate with a lawyer. The sources indicated that the reasons for Al-Ahmadi’s arrest are still unknown at this time.
In the same context, the UAE Detainees Advocacy Center and the “MENA Group for Human Rights referred Al-Ahmadi’s case to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearance, which in turn sent a letter to the Emirati authorities, but the latter have not responded until this moment.
Al-Ahmadi was previously arrested and spent about nine years in prison in connection with the case known in the media as “UAE 94”, where he was arrested on October 12, 2012, and sentenced to seven years in prison, but he remained detained until April 2021, when he was released.
Al-Ahmadi is considered one of the well-known youth faces in the UAE, as he worked as Vice President of the National Union of Emirati Students and was given the title “Ambassador of Al-Quds,” as he contributed to establishing the Youth Association for Al-Quds. He headed the association’s branch in the UAE and also implemented the Al-Quds Ambassadors Cultural Program, which consisted of ten specialized courses.
In parallel, the security authorities in Bahrain continue to summon and arrest participants in solidarity rallies with Palestine.
According to preliminary statistics, Bahraini security forces arrested about 28 citizens, including six minors, between October 13 and November 7. They later released 14 of them, while the rest are still in detention pending their referral to the public prosecutor.
Activists on social media mentioned that the Bahraini authorities arrested 32 Bahraini citizens in October. Of the 28 peaceful rallies, the authorities suppressed at least nine rallies without convincing justification.
Since November, the campaign of arrests and summonses has continued. On November 2, the Sanabis and Karbabad areas witnessed violent repression, which resulted in casualties among the participants.
An arrest campaign also targeted at least 17 citizens who were detained and brought before the prosecution on Sunday, October 5, 2023. A number of the detainees were released after signing a pledge not to go out in unauthorized rallies again.
YPA