Letter to UAE Interior Minister calling for the release of all Indefinitely Detained Prisoners

Minister of Interior

1st Street, W 56 

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

23 April 2021

RE Indefinite Detention within the United Arab Emirates

Lieutenant General His Highness Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 

We at the International Campaign for Freedom in the United Arab Emirates are writing to you regarding our grave concern over the UAE’s practice of indefinite detention, specifically the decisions to transfer inmates to Munasaha Centres at the end of their sentences. As the Minister of Interior, you are responsible for the governance of the prison system. As such we call on you to release all prisoners arbitrarily held in Munasaha Centres.

A total of nine individuals, including two women, are being unjustly held beyond their official release dates without a clear legal basis. Whilst seven of these individuals are detained in Munasaha Centres, the two women remain imprisoned in al Wathba, the same prison they served their original sentences. 

This is a clear violation of international human rights laws, as evident in a coalition of UN Special Procedures mandate holders condemnation of such practices in November 2020. 

As we are sure you are aware, the use of Munasaha Centres facilitates the practice of indefinite detention. For the purpose of ‘enlightenment and reform of persons deemed to pose a terrorist threat’, political dissidents are denied release at the end of their sentence and are instead transferred to such centres. The extension of their sentences is often merely done through either an administrative decision or court order, where prisoners are denied the right to a lawyer and fair trial.

Additionally, the vague counterterrorism laws which stipulate the use of Munasaha Centres fail to clearly define what constitutes a ‘terrorist threat’. The fact that prisoners are sent to Munasaha Centres indefinitely, with the decision being reviewed every six months at the discretion of the court, shows the UAE’s continuation of unjust treatment of political prisoners. In reality, these political prisoners show no threat to the country. 

Owing to the fact Munasaha Centres are located in the same vicinity as prison facilities, there remains no evidence that the treatment or the conditions these individuals are forced to endure differs from regular prisons. This means that there is a continuation of mistreatment of those detained and exposure to the deplorable state of the prisons themselves. Such mistreatment includes denied family visits and medical treatment, as well as acts of torture and dehumanising and unsanitary detention conditions, inducing the likelihood of Covid-19 outbreaks.

In light of the above, ICFUAE are deeply concerned for the physical and mental health of individuals who have been denied their promised freedom and remain behind bars for the indefinite future. Your Excellency’s counterterrorism laws which sanction the use of Munasaha Centres violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as well as the Arab Charter on Human Rights (ACHR). We therefore strongly urge that all political prisoners being held indefinitely are immediately and unconditionally released and that all Munasaha Centres are to be closed without any further ado. 

Yours sincerely, 

The International Campaign for Freedom in the United Arab Emirates