WGAD declares detention of two Jordanians in UAE arbitrary

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD ) has published Opinion 3/2018 , declaring the detention of two Jordanian IT professionals, living and working in Abu Dubai, arbitrary.

Bahaa Mattar and Maher Abu Shawareb were arrested in October 2015, and sentenced to 10 years in prison in December 2017, on the sole basis of confessions extracted under torture.

On April 25, 2018, the WGAD experts ruled on their case, calling for their immediate release and the recognition of their enforceable right to reparation because their detention violated fair trial guarantees.

 In their decision, the UN experts reminded the UAE authorities, that this Opinion was “only one of several Opinions in which the Working Group has found the government of the [UAE] in violation of its international human rights obligations”, recalling that “under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty in violation of the rules of international law may constitute crimes against humanity”.