UAE: Jordanian Citizen Arbitrarily Detained will Serve Full Prison Sentence

Alkarama regrets that, despite several attempts to request the Emirati authorities to release him, Jordanian citizen Rami Shaher Abdel Jalil Al Mrayat is to serve his full sentence in the Al Wathba prison, in spite of the fact that he is being arbitrarily detained.

Arrested on 19 November 2011 at the Abu Dhabi airport as he intended to travel to Jordan, Al Mrayat was detainedincommunicado for weeks, during which he was severely tortured and forced to make confessions. Charged with spying on the UAE for Iran, he was sentenced on 30 July 2012 to five years in prison by the Supreme Federal Court. His sentence was based solely on confessions extracted under torture.

Following a communication sent by Alkarama to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) in January 2013, the WGAD issued in August 2013 an Opinion recognising the arbitrary character of Al Mrayat's detention and requesting the State to release him immediately.However, to date, the Emiratis authoritiesfailed to comply with the WGAD's Opinion. With a record of good behaviour confirmed by the prison administration and sent to the Jordanian Embassy in the UAE, Al Mrayat was supposed to be released on 18 August 2015, after serving three quarters of his sentence; nevertheless, he was told he would leave prison only after serving his full sentence. In light of these facts, Alkarama sent a follow up communication to the WGAD in August 2015, requesting the Working Group to ask the Emirati authorities to release him immediately, but the request was, once again, ignored by the government.

Alkaramacalls again upon the Emirati authorities to put an end to Al Mrayat's arbitrary detention byreleasing him immediately. As a member of the Human Rights Council, the UAE government is expected to collaborate with the Special procedures and surely not ignore their opinions and calls.