Amnesty International Report 1998 - United Arab Emirates

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)

A prisoner of conscience held beyond the expiry of his sentence was released. At least three possible prisoners of conscience were held throughout the year. Torture and ill-treatment were reported and the use of cruel judicial punishments increased significantly. At least 15 people were sentenced to death and six executions were reported.

The punishment of flogging was extended to traffic offences and reportedly to begging in the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah.

Prisoner of conscience Elie Dib Ghalib, a Lebanese Christian, was released in July – more than six months after the expiry of his sentence. He had been sentenced to one year's imprisonment and 39 lashes after his marriage to a Muslim United Arab Emirates national was ruled null and void and his relationship therefore a criminal offence under the country's law. No investigation was known to have been carried out into reports that he was tortured and ill-treated in prison. It was not known whether the sentence of flogging was carried out (see Amnesty International Report 1997).

Three possible prisoners of conscience detained in June 1996 – brothers Jassim and Yassir ‘Issa al-Yassi and Ahmad ‘Abdullah Makki – remained held without trial and possibly without charge (see Amnesty International Report 1997).

Torture and ill-treatment of detainees continued to be reported

Cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments, including flogging and amputation, continued to be imposed. At least 19 sentences of flogging were reported for a range of offences – including theft and sexual offences such as adultery – often in conjunction with prison sentences. In April, a Sri Lankan woman and an Indian man were reportedly sentenced to 130 and 90 lashes respectively, and deportation, by a court in Ras al-Khaimah. Also in April, three men convicted of drinking alcohol, assaulting a woman and threatening to kill her, were reportedly each sentenced to 680 lashes and six years' imprisonment by a court in Khawr Faqqan. In June, a court in the Emirate of Fujairah reportedly sentenced two men to 80 lashes and 10 years' imprisonment each for rape; a third defendant was sentenced to 180 lashes and 10 years' imprisonment. It was not known if the sentences had been implemented by the end of the year.

Sentences of amputation were also reported. In April, two men convicted of robbery were sentenced by a court in Fujairah to have their right hands and feet amputated. It was not known whether the sentence had been carried out by the end of the year.

At least 15 death sentences were reported – a significant increase over previous years – and two death sentences imposed in previous years were confirmed. In April, Ahmad Mohammad Amin Bada‘u and Mohammad ‘Abdullah ‘Abdul ‘Aziz were reportedly sentenced to death for the kidnap, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in October 1996. The outcome of their appeal was not known at the end of the year. In June, Nur Ibrahim, a Pakistan national, was reportedly sentenced to death for drug smuggling by a court in Ras al-Khaimah. Two other men tried in the same case were each sentenced to 80 lashes and life imprisonment.

In April, the Federal Supreme Court in the town of al-‘Ain upheld the death sentence imposed on Zad Khan Shah, a Pakistan national, for murder in December 1993. The sentence was awaiting ratification by the President, Al-Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, at the end of the year.

In February the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi upheld the death sentence against John Aquino, a Philippine national (see Amnesty International Reports 1996 and 1997). In September, the Court agreed to allow him until December to seek clemency from the victim's family. At the end of the year he remained under sentence of death.

It was not known whether the death sentence on Mashal Badr al-Hamati, a Yemeni national, had been commuted (see previous Amnesty International Reports).

At least six people, including a woman, were executed. In July, three Indian nationals, convicted of murder and sentenced to death in December 1996, were executed by firing-squad in a Dubai prison. The death sentences had been confirmed by the Court of Appeal in April, despite reports that blood money had been paid to the families of the victims, who subsequently waived the punishment against the three men. In September, Majid Fakher Hussain Majid and ‘Abdul Mehdi Karim Mushtaq, an Iranian national, were publicly executed by firing-squad in the town of al-‘Ain. They had been convicted earlier in the year of the murder of five people during a series of robberies and sentenced to be crucified before being executed. However, the sentence of crucifixion was not carried out. In December Zainab Ramdhan Zaki, an Egyptian national convicted by a court in Ras al-Khaimah of murdering her husband, was executed.

Amnesty International appealed for the release of prisoners of conscience and for the fair trial or release of detainees held for political or religious reasons. It also called for investigations into allegations of torture and ill-treatment. Amnesty International expressed concern at the increased use of the death penalty and called for the commutation of all death sentences and sentences of flogging and amputation. No responses were received from the authorities.