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Sent:
Thursday, November 20, 2008 4:20 AM
Subject: Arab Emirates: Arbitrary
detention and unfair trial of Dr.
Mansoor Al Shamsi
Name: "Free Alshamsi
Email:
Response ID201120080420
Country:
Monday, 11 August 2008
On 8 August 2008 Alkarama submitted
a communication to the Working Group
on Arbitrary Detention and the
Special Rapporteur on freedom of
expression and opinion asking them
to intervene on behalf of Dr Al
Shamsi, who was arrested on 6 May
2007 and conviction by an unfair
trail to five years of prison of by
the United Arab Emirates
authorities.
Dr Mansoor Jassem Al Shamsi was born
on 5 May 1965. He is married with
four children, and lives in Sharjah,
in the United Arab Emirates. He has
a Doctorate in Philosophy and
Political science from the
University of Exeter (UK) and has
held various responsibilities in his
countryʼs administration public
service.
At the time of his arrest he was
working as senior advisor to the
Ministry of Labour. He is also a
founding member of the Writers'
Union of the United Arab Emirates
and the uthor of numerous articles
and contributions.
Dr Al Shamsi is known in his country
for his poetry, his contributions to
the local and regional press and the
critical political position he
sometimes adopts towards the
authorities in the regional media.
Thus, in the wake of certain public
interventions on issues of regional
policy, he was arrested for the
first time on 26 November 2006 at
his home by agents of State Security
(Amn Addawla) without a warrant, and
without being informed of the
reasons for his arrest. His home was
searched without a search warrant
and his personal papers and books
were confiscated.
After this first arrest, Dr Al
Shamsi was detained incommunicado
for 86 days before being released
without charge or legal process on
20 February 2007.
During this period, his family were
never informed of his fate, the
authorities consistently refused to
provide any information on the
reasons for his arrest and detention
- in complete violation of the Code
of Criminal Procedure which states
that the accused must be brought
before a prosecutor within 48 hours
after his or her arrest. He was also
tortured during this period and
subjected to all sorts of abuse.
Before his release, he was ordered
by the authorities to refrain from
making any oral or written
intervention in the media and any
further engagement in political
activities, which he has refused.
This is certainly why he was
rearrested by the same services on 6
May 2007 and held incommunicado for
22 days until 28 May 2007, date of
his submission to the floor of the
Federal Supreme Court.
During this second detention, Dr Al
Shamsi reports having been submitted
to the same conditions as the first
time, and having been even more
severely tortured. He reports, in
particular, of having been held in
total isolation in an icy cell where
he slept on the concrete floor,
being deprived of sleep for several
days, beaten, insulted, and
threatened on several occasions.
Charged with endangering state
security, his case was referred to
the Federal Supreme Court on 25 June
2007.
In the absence of evidence to
justify the charges brought against
him, the only elements of the
criminal charges filed were the
minutes prepared by his torturers
containing confessions extracted
under torture.
Although Dr Al Shamsi has written a
long detailed letter addressed to
the Court in which he described the
conditions of his detention and the
torture he suffered, mentioning his
torturers by name, it has never been
taken into account by the Federal
Supreme Court judges.
Dr Al Shamsiʼs trial has constituted
a series of violations of his
fundamental right to a fair trial.
From the first hearing, the judge
declared the trail in camera, and
observers and family members of the
accused were prohibited access to
the Court.
The only witnesses called by the
court were State Security officers,
and notably the officer who
conducted the preliminary
investigation and torture sessions,
who was cited by prosecutors as the
main witness for the prosecution.
Despite repeated requests to the
public prosecutor by the defence to
produce evidence of its allegations,
and after having declared to the
Court its readiness to do so, the
prosecution then sought refuge
behind the secret nature of such
evidence, that the State security
services could not disclose, not
even to the Court.
Dr Al-Shamsi's lawyer was then
invited by the trial court to prove
the innocence of his client in clear
violation of the fundamental
principle of presumption of
innocence. Dr Al-Shamsi was finally
sentenced on 1 October 2007 to five
years' imprisonment, after an unfair
trial, marred by serious
irregularities during which his
lawyer was not allowed to enter a
plea and was only able to submit a
written brief.
Supreme Court decisions are not
subject to appeal in violation of
the principle of the right to a
double level of jurisdiction.
Dr Al Shamsiʼs 86-day incommunicado
detention without charges resulting
from his first arrest, as well as
his current detention following his
conviction in the wake of an unfair
trail are obviously, in the light of
the facts exposed, motivated by his
views and political statements and
are thus undoubtedly arbitrary.
http://en.alkarama.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=130&Itemid=59
United Arab Emirates: Arbitrary
detention and unfair trial of Dr.
Mansoor Al Shamsi |
