Ahmed Mansoor, United Arab Emirates
I am Ahmed Mansoor, one of the last voices in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) who provided a credible independent assessment of human rights developments in the country. I am on the Gulf Centre for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch advisory boards. In 2015, I won the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in recognition for my human rights work, following repeated crackdowns on human rights defenders in UAE that led to my arrest in 2011 and again in 2017.
On 29 May 2018, I was sentenced to 10 years in prison on trumped-up charges of ‘insulting the status and prestige of the UAE and its symbols including its leaders and for seeking to damage the relationship of the United Arab Emirates with its neighbors by publishing false reports and information on social media’. I was also fined 1 million dirhams and given three years' probation to be served upon my release. This decision was upheld by the UAE’s State Security Court on 31 December 2018.
Throughout my years of activism, I have received death threats, subject to physical assaults, government surveillance, and inhumane treatment in custody. Since over 5 years now I am in solitary confinement in Al-Sadr prison, and I was denied a bed, mattress, or pillow. I have been subjected to frequent harassment by correctional officers, who refuse to allow me access to books, newspapers, radio, or TV.
Many NGOs, United Nations representatives and the European Union have called for my release. Be my witness!
The CIVICUS Monitor rates UAE as a closed state with a severe decline in civic space and freedoms.
Call for my release by going to the TAKE ACTION section below.
