CAIRO: Ten Egyptian human rights associations called for the release of United Arab Emirate's rights activist and prominent blogger Ahmed Mansour and his colleagues Fahd Salem al-Shehhi, Nasser Bin Gheith and Abdullah al-Shehhi. The organizations denounced the absence of any formal allegations against the activists, and warned of an ongoing crackdown on bloggers and activists carried out by UAE security forces. The organizations included The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), el-Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). “We fear that the security services of UAE will put activists to trial over fabricated criminal charges in the coming days,” declared the undersigned organizations in a statement. This comes in answer to unconfirmed reports that Mansour is being charged with alcohol possession and consumption. Mansour's wife Nadia acknowledged the Dubai police report that two bottles of whiskey were found in Mansour's house, but said they were probably a gift from friends. Alcohol is available in the UAE, but Muslims are not allowed to buy, consume or possess it. Security forces attempted to raid Mansour's home in the Arab Emirate of Ras el-Khaima , on April 8. After Mansour managed to fight them off, 10 policemen came back to his house and searched his property, seizing two laptops and taking him into custody without giving any reason. Unconfirmed sources said he is being held in Al Wathba prison in Abu Dhabi. Ahmed Mansour was the founder of uaehewar.net, a web site of information and discussion of national topics, banned in the UAE and indefinitely shut down in 2010. His arrest came only days after he and other cyber-activists signed a petition calling for political reforms and a real role for the parliament. He also wrote a post on his blog telling of a flawed attempt to arrest him and his colleagues, allegedly accused of spreading unrest through their militancy on the Internet. Following this publication, Mansour had been subjected to severe harassment by UAE authorities and was repeatedly threatened to death by unknown users on the Internet. Mansour was an employee at Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications, in which Etisalat is a major shareholder. Right before his arrest, Thuraya made public its decision to move him to the company's branch in Pakistan, which he refused. Within one week after Mansour's detention, security forces proceeded to the arrest of Internet and human rights activists and co-signatories of the petition, which included Fahd Salem Al-Shehhi, Nasser Bin Gheith and Abdullah alShehhi. These arrests were “to punish those activists for using their legitimate right to express their views, terrorize opponents in the UAE and seize their legitimate and guaranteed rights under national and international legislation,” added the organizations in the statement. They ask for the liberation of the activists, underlining that UAE's security methods proved the failure of Arab dictatorships to suppress the right to expression. They also called for “national dialogue and real reforms instead of security solutions that increase the tension between the opponents and the government.” “These people have been arrested, detained without charge, yes, and it's certainly sent a signal to the UAE national population that dissent has been made formally illegal,” said Professor of Middle East politics at UK Durham University Christopher Davidson. Their attempts were “absolutely non-revolutionary and not radical at all,” added Davidson, commenting on the identity of the detainees. Abdullah al-Shehhi is a former Army officer and Nasser Bin Gaith a financial analyst and economics professor at the Abu Dhabi branch of Paris' Sorbonne university. Davidson also stressed that “theirs were attempts to get dialogues up and running,” and that wealth distribution in UAE is too effective to actually lead anything similar to what happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya or Bahrain. UAE ranks as the 21st wealthiest country in the world, according to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, and thanks to roughly 2.7 million barrels a day in oil exports. Nonetheless, 19.5 percent of the population live under the poverty line, many of which are South Asian migrant laborers, who make up 50 percent of the total population. The UAE population grows at an annual rate of 3.3 percent, the world's third highest net migration rate that runs at 1.9 percent yearly over the total of the population. In related news, the UAE might soon realize its long planed project to block individuals and small businesses from accessing their accounts on the Blackberry Enterprise Service. According to the Emirates newspaper The National, the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority ruled that Blackberry Enterprise Services will only be accessible by businesses with 20 or more subscriptions from 1 May. This will automatically prevent everyone else from accessing secure corporate email and other services. BM
