In leaked letters, Ahmed Mansoor reveals his ill-treatment
In a series of letters, which were smuggled out of al-Sadr prison, Abu Dhabi, prominent human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor revealed the torture and abuse he has been subjected to since his arrest in March 2017.
Ahmed Mansoor detailed the violations and ill-treatment he faced while in solitary confinement. He said in his handwritten letters that he recorded the details of his court hearings and the various fair trial violations he suffered in the Federal Court of Appeals in Abu Dhabi and the Federal Supreme Court.
"To sum up, my situation is almost the same as it was before the two hunger strikes. I am still in solitary confinement with a door permanently locked and only opened to receive meals and water, go to the clinic, receive my purchases, or do some physical exercises. I do not have a TV or radio or any books, newspapers, nail clippers, sports shoes, a bed, a mattress; and they do not provide me with a shaving kit, although I was allowed to buy a razor one year and nine months after I entered the detention facility. I also was not allowed to bring my glasses that the doctor prescribed for me for reading to prison."
He also pointed out that he underwent two hunger strikes demanding "the right to phone calls like the rest of the inmates, the right to periodic visits, the right to go to the library, the right to exercise and exposure to the sun, the right to watch TV in the cell, in addition to other necessities, such as a mattress and cleaning products."
He said being held in isolation was extremely difficult over the first two and a half years, as he was not allowed to talk to any prisoner even from a distance.
Ahmed Mansoor is a prominent human rights defender who has worked extensively with international rights organisations to raise awareness of human rights abuses in the UAE. He serves on the advisory boards of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) Middle East division. In 2015, Mansoor won the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders for all of his efforts in the field of human rights.
On 20 March 2017, he was arrested in a midnight raid on his home and later sentenced to ten years in prison for “defaming the UAE through social media channels” under draconian cybercrime laws. Mansoor’s arrest and persecution are part of a systematic crackdown by the Emirati authorities to silence those exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
For the past four years, Ahmed Mansoor has been kept in solitary confinement in a cell without a bed, access to books or a TV.
