Matthew Hedges submits official UN complaint against UAE

Matthew Hedges submits official UN complaint against UAE

Former UAE prisoner Matthew Hedges has submitted an official complaint against the Emirati authorities for his arbitrary detention and ill-treatment during his seven-month detention in the UAE last year.

In November 2018 Hedges received a pardon for a life sentence in the UAE in a case that courted much controversy.

Arrested in May 2018, an Abu Dhabi court sentenced him to life imprisonment in a five-minute hearing after accusing him of spying in the country.

He has now filed an official complaint against the UAE with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for having his human rights abused and being unlawfully convicted, media sources reported.

Mr Hedges said, “No one, let alone an innocent person, should have to go through what I did, and I can only hope that complaints like this make the UAE reconsider the Human Rights abuses that have become a regular feature of life in the country, especially for those other innocent people still in detention there.”

 

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