Prominent human rights organizations said on Wednesday that the UAE authorities should release from detention rights defender Ahmed Mansoor, who has been suffering from dire conditions during his years in solitary confinement
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th December, 2020) Prominent human rights organizations said on Wednesday that the UAE authorities should release from detention rights defender Ahmed Mansoor, who has been suffering from dire conditions during his years in solitary confinement.
According to Human Rights Watch and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), between December 2017 and March 2018, authorities took away the mattress from Mansoor's cell and did not provide him with warm clothing or access to hot water. Moreover, he did not receive any medication to treat hypertension, with which he was diagnosed.
"The Emirati authorities should release Mansoor immediately and unconditionally, and barring that, end his solitary confinement and provide him with the needed medication, warm clothing and blankets, and a mattress and bed," Human Rights Watch and GCHR said.
Khalid Ibrahim, the executive director of GCHR, said that the UAE authorities should have celebrated Mansoor's efforts in defending the rights of his fellow citizens in the UAE instead of putting him in prison.
On March 20, 2017, UAE security forces arrested Mansoor. In May 2018, an Abu Dhabi court sentenced Mansoor to 10 years in prison for insulting the status and prestige of the UAE, by publishing false information on social media. The activist appealed the sentence. In December, the UAE Federal Supreme Court upheld a 10-year sentence for Mansoor. In 2019, human rights activists initiated two hunger strikes, asking for basic prisoner rights and protesting poor treatment and his ongoing detention.
