Speech Charges Violate Academic’s Rights

(Beirut, October 13, 2016) – United Arab Emirates authorities have violatedbasic rights in their prosecution of the Emirati academic Nasser bin Ghaith, a coalition of nine human rights organizationssaid today. Bin Ghaith faces charges stemming from his peaceful criticism ofEgyptian and Emirati authorities. Authorities also accuse him of violating thecountry’s repressive counterterrorism law by collaborating with local groups theauthorities have classified as terrorist.

Authorities held bin Ghaith in incommunicado detention for nine months after hisarrest in August 2015, and did not let him see a lawyer or inform him of thecharges against him until the second session of his trial on May 2, 2016, duringwhich he complained to the judge that he had been tortured in detention. Three ofthe five charges against him clearly violate his right to freedom of expression.Authorities have kept bin Ghaith in solitary confinement since his transfer tothe maximum security block in Al-Sadr jail on May 18. The next session of histrial is on October 17, at the State Security Chamber at the Federal SupremeCourt, whose verdicts are not subject to appeal, in violation of fair trialstandards.

“The charges against Nasser bin Ghaith and serious violations of his right to afair trial demonstrate again that the UAE regards peaceful dissent as a crime,”said Joe Stork, deputy director at Human Rights Watch. “The laws authoritiesaccuse bin Ghaith of breaking violate international standards of free speechand freedom of association.”

The coalition supporting bin Ghaith consists of theArabicNetwork for Human Rights Information (ANHRI); the Cairo Institute for HumanRights Studies (CIHRS); the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) andthe World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of theObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders; Front Line Defenders;Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR); Human Rights Watch; International Servicefor Human Rights (ISHR); and Scholars at Risk.

Security officers in civilian clothes arrested bin Ghaith in AbuDhabi on August 18, 2015, four days after he posted a series of tweets thatdirectly or implicitly criticized Egyptian authorities. On August 13 and 14, heposted three comments critical of Egyptian security forces’ mass killing ofdemonstrators at Raba’a Square two years earlier. Article 166 of the UAE penalcode provides for a maximum of 10 years in prison for anyone who commits any“hostile act” against a foreign country that could expose the UAE to the dangerof war or the severance of diplomatic relations.

Bin Ghaith also facescharges that he posted information “intended to damage the UAE” by “claimingthat he was tortured and unjustly accused during a previous trial.” In 2011,bin Ghaith was one of five men convicted of “publicly insulting” UAE officialsin relation to their alleged criticism of the UAE’s de facto ruler, CrownPrince Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. Human rights organizations concluded thatbin Ghaith’s 2011 trial was “fundamentally unfair.” Bin Ghaith is alsoaccused of violating article 29 of the UAE’s 2012 cybercrime law, whichprovides for a maximum of 15 years in prison for publishing material onlinewith “sarcastic intent” or to “damage the reputation” of the state or itsleaders.



Authorities also charged bin Ghaithin connection with a tweet that he posted on August 17, 2015, inwhich, local media reports said, he made “remarksridiculing the UAE’s decision to allot land to build a Hindu temple.” Article28 of the UAE’s cybercrime law provides for between three and 15 years inprison for anyone who posts online anything that “may endanger the nationalsecurity and the higher interests of the State or afflicts its public order.”



The fourth and fifth charges relateto his apparent association with the Ummah and Al-Islah parties, Emiratiorganizations that the authorities classifiedas “designated terroristorganizations” in November 2014. The Khaleej Times reported that bin Ghaith had given lectures “that promotethese groups.” Video recordings of one such presentation,made in Istanbul and available online, show the Ummah secretary-general, Hassanal-Diqqi, introducing bin Ghaith as an academic.

In a May 5, 2016 Twitter statementattributed to bin Ghaith’s family, they rejected Ummah party claims on social mediaseveral days earlier, the day before bin Ghaith’s trial session, that binGhaith was the party chairman.

In July 2013, the UAE FederalSupreme Court found 69 people with links to al-Islah guilty of attempting to overthrow the country’s politicalsystem. From the court’s reasoning, it appears that thoseconvicted simply exercised their legitimate rights to free expression andassociation. The only evidence in the judgment that suggests any intention tooverthrow the government is a confession by one defendant, Ahmed al-Suweidi,whom authorities had forcibly disappeared for five months after his arrest onMarch 26, 2012. In court al-Suweidi recanted his confession and denied all thecharges. During the trial, 22 of the defendants smuggled out handwritten notesalleging that they had endured mistreatment that in some cases amounted to torture.



Article 21 of the UAE 2014 counterterrorism law provides for the deathpenalty or life in prison for anyone who organizes or manages “a terroristorganization.” The law’s broad definition of terrorist activity allows authoritiesto designate any act that courts deem to have opposed the state, incited fear,or threatened national unity as terrorism. Article 180 of the penal codeprovides for a maximum of 15 years in prison for anyone who “administers anassociation, corporation, organization or any branch thereof, with the aim ofoverthrowing the regime of the State.” The counterterrorism law also authorizesthe death penalty for people whose activities are found to “undermine nationalunity or social peace,” neither of which are defined in the law.



At the most recent session of binGhaith’s trial, on September 27, 2016, court officials prevented a UnitedKingdom-based lawyer from entering the court to observe the trial on behalf ofthe coalition of nongovernmental groups, telling him that he needed priorauthorization, and that only family members, lawyers, and accreditedjournalists could attend. UAE residents who the authorities suspect have spokenwith human rights groups are at serious risk of arbitrary detention and imprisonment.

“Only the lawyers, family, and pressfrom the UAE were admitted to the court, on the basis that the trial covered amatter of national security, but what this case is actually about is Dr. bin Ghaith’speaceful expression of his opinions on reform in the UAE and Egypt. Anotheradjournment is justice delayed and justice denied,” said Khalid Ibrahim, co-director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights.

On October 4, the Arabic Network for HumanRights Information (ANHRI), the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies(CIHRS), FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within theframework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders,Front Line Defenders, Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), InternationalService for Human Rights (ISHR), and Scholars at Risk, submitted information onNasser bin Ghaith’s case to variety range of United Nations human rights bodiesand experts.

For moreinformation, please contact:

· FIDH: Audrey Couprie / Arthur Manet: + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18

· OMCT: Delphine Reculeau / MiguelMartín Zumalacárregui: + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39