Matthew Hedges: UAE called on to release dozens of free speech campaigners after UK academic's pardon

Rights groups are calling on the United Arab Emirates to release dozens of prisoners of conscience imprisoned in the country following the pardon of British academic Matthew Hedges.

Mr Hedges, a 31-year-old student at Durham University, was arrested in May while leaving Dubai airport after conducting research for his PhD thesis. He was charged with spying and held for five months in solitary confinement, before being sentenced to life in prison.

He denied all the charges, and following intense diplomatic pressure from the British government was granted a pardon by the UAE’s President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

But following his release, Amnesty International has called for a renewed focus on other detainees held in the UAE, and a “far more robust position from the UK in defence of human rights across the entire Gulf region.”

“Matthew’s ordeal is a reminder that the UAE is a deeply repressive country which ruthlessly suppresses free speech and peaceful criticism, and we should spare a thought for Emirati prisoners of conscience like Ahmed Mansoor or Mohammed al-Roken who aren’t getting a pardon today,” said Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s Director.

The UAE has long been a destination for British investment, and trade has been increasing in recent years. The UK is the biggest foreign direct investor in the Gulf state. Total trade between the two countries rose by 12 per cent in 2017, to £17.5 billion. More than 120,000 Brits live and work in the UAE, and close to a million British tourists visit every year.

But as relations have been steadily growing closer between the two countries, UAE authorities have embarked on a “ruthless crackdown targeting human rights defenders, judges, lawyers, academics, students and journalists, apparently designed to stamp out all dissent in the country,” Amnesty said.

One of the most well-known detainees is prominent human rights campaigner Ahmed Mansoor. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in May on charges that included “insulting the status and prestige of the UAE and its symbols.”

Dr Nasser bin Ghaith is currently serving a 10 years sentence after being convicted on charges of “posting false information.” He was sentenced in March 2017 by the Federal Appeal Court in Abu Dhabi.

Dr Mohammed al-Roken, a human rights lawyer, was arrested in 2012 in what Amnesty described as a “grossly unfair” trial of 94 reformists known as the UAE 94. Hussain Ali al-Najjar al-Hammadi, a science teacher, was sentenced to 10 years as part of the same trial. His son, Osama al-Najjar, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2014 for tweeting concern about his father’s treatment in prison. His detention was extended because authorities deemed him a threat.

“Many of the UAE 94 have alleged in court that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated in pre-trial detention, where they were often held incommunicado for months in secret State Security detention facilities,” Amnesty said.

In March last year, a court sentenced Jordanian journalist Tayseer al-Najjar to three years for “insulting the state’s symbols” relating to Facebook posts in which he criticized Egypt, Israel, and Gulf countries.

Human Rights Watch said the UAE has become increasingly repressive since 2011, carrying out a “sustained assault on freedom of expression and association, arbitrarily detaining and prosecuting peaceful critics, political dissidents, human rights activists, and academics.”

Michael Page, deputy director of the Middle East division at Human Rights Watch, told The Independent that was “happy news” that Matthew Hedges was released, “but international pressure should continue to urge authorities to release activists like Ahmed Mansoor, academics like Nasser bin-Ghaith, and journalists like Jordanian Tayseer al-Najjar while they languish in UAE jails simply for exercising their right to free expression.”

Mr Hedges was released on Monday, more than six months after being arrested. The case sparked a diplomatic row between the UAE and the UK, which denied that Mr Hedges was working as a spy. The foreign office was criticised for not intervening more quickly in the case, but the last week has seen an intense lobbying effort by the British government on his behalf.

Mr Hedges’s wife, Daniela Tejada, said the pardon was "the best news we could’ve received."

"Our six plus months of nightmare are finally over and to say we are elated is an understatement. That he is returning home to me and the rest of his family is much more than I was ever expecting to happen this week," she said.