Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Sunday slammed a United Arab Emirates (UAE) court decision to acquit the brother of the UAE president of torture, saying the Gulf state’s reputation had been “sullied.”
A report by the New York-based watchdog also renewed criticism of the working and living conditions of migrant workers in the UAE.
The Foreign Ministry reacted by branding the HRW report “unbalanced,” but ignored reference to the trial.
HRW criticized an Emirati court that cleared Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahayan of charges of torturing an Afghan trader in 2004, for failing to provide written reasons for its decision “even though it found all his accomplices guilty.”
“If the UAE government really wants to stop torture and to restore its sullied reputation, it has much to do, especially in light of Sheikh Issa’s acquittal,” said Joe Stork, deputy director of HRW’s Middle East division.
“The government needs to set in motion significant institutional reforms and to make certain that human rights violations are punished,” he said in a statement released at a Dubai news conference during which HRW released its annual report on rights developments in the UAE, Iran, Iraq and Bahrain.
Sheikh Issa is the brother of the UAE president and ruler of oil-rich Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan. He was acquitted on Jan. 10 of any wrongdoing.
Sheikh Issa’s lawyer said he was cleared on the basis that he was drugged and therefore not responsible for his actions.
“As far as I know, there has not been a written verdict issued,” HRW UAE researcher Samer Muscati said at the news conference.
He said the trial was not open at the beginning to the press which “did not get to cover the prosecution.”
Allegations against the sheikh emerged after a video aired last April appeared to show him beating a man with whips, electric cattle prods and a wooden plank studded with nails.
Assisted by what appeared to be policemen, Sheikh Issa is seen to pour salt in the man’s wounds and run over him with a sports utility vehicle.
The victim needed months of hospital care following the incident. He was reportedly an Afghan trader who lost a US$5,000 consignment of grain.
HRW urged the UAE to take steps to improve human rights, including establishing “an independent body with authority to investigate abuse and torture by security personnel, others in positions of authority, and private citizens.”
It also called on the UAE to “ratify the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”
HRW also claimed that abuse of migrant workers continued, highlighting unsafe working environments and the practice of withholding their passports.
It also underscored the repatriations of tens of thousands of migrant workers on unpaid “vacations,” after the global financial crisis hit the UAE.
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