Amnesty remembers the 60 activists imprisoned for ten years in the Emirates with a view to COP28

July 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Amnesty International has dedicated this Sunday a memory to the 60 activists and civil society actors “unjustly” imprisoned for ten years in the country, which is hosting the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28) at the end of this year. despite this “blemish” on his Human Rights record.

In March 2012, the Emirati authorities organized a mass trial of people linked to Al Isla, an organization affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, because, in the words of the prosecution, it sought to change the “system of government” in the country.

The process led, in July of the following year, to 69 convicts of whom 60 remain in prison, including 51 people who have completed their sentences but are still detained under the pretext of “advice against extremism”.

Fifty-two organizations, including Amnesty International, have issued a petition calling on the Emirates for their immediate release, as well as that of other prisoners “arbitrarily detained in the country.”

“Although we are halfway through the year that the Emirates will occupy the international spotlight with COP28, the government has not released any of the 60 Emiratis it unjustly imprisoned in 2013,” lamented Amnesty International’s regional director for the Middle East. and North Africa, Heba Morayef.

The researcher has also lamented that “governments that could influence the United Arab Emirates have kept a disappointing silence on the need for these prisoners to be released immediately.”

“COP28 will not generate the ambitious action we need to prevent climate breakdown if it takes place in an environment where the host state has laws restricting the freedom of expression of participants and a history of strangling civil society,” he said. added.

“If governments around the world want to ensure that COP28 is not marred by repression and succeeds in implementing urgent and effective climate action, they must act now by pressing the Emirati government to urgently release these prisoners.” , has riveted.