UAE: One year after Ahmed Mansoor's arrest, RSF and 20 other NGOs ask for his release
Well-known blogger and human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor has been held for a year. Reporters without borders (RSF) and 20 other NGOs ask for his immediate and unconditional release.
Ahmed Mansoor, one of the few sources of freely expressed opinion in the UAE, was arrested at his Dubai home late at night a year ago and held in an undisclosed location ever since, despite condemnation from UN human rights experts and independent human rights organisations.
Ahmed Mansoor , recipient of the 2015 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, was accused of posting “false information, rumours and lies” liable to damage the UAE’s reputation.
One journalist and two citizen journalists are currently
imprisoned in the UAE, which is ranked 119th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
Please find here the English version of the joint statement.
Signed:
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain
Amnesty International
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
Article 19
CIVICUS
Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia
English PEN
Freedom Now, Morocco
Front Line Defenders
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Maharat Foundation
Martin Ennals Foundation
Moroccan Association for Human Rights
PEN International
Reporters Without Borders
Scholars at Risk
Tunisian Association for Academic Freedoms
Tunis Center for Press Freedom
Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH)
Tunisian Organisation against Torture
Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders