Omani Authorities must take immediate action to release Al-Shamsy.
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) condemned the decision of the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi, on Wednesday 6th May 2020 to sentence Omani citizen Abdullah Al-Shamsy to life imprisonment. The organisation considered this ruling arbitrary.
AOHR UK stated that UAE’s judiciary system lacks impartiality and independence. Its rulings cannot be trusted since it depends on repressive laws used, in particular, against the opposition.
Crimes alleged to have been committed by Al-Shamsi when he was 17 years old amount to irrational accusations, taking into consideration his age and the nature of the offence.
Al-Shamsy was denied his right to appoint a lawyer and to defend himself in a trial lacking minimum standards of fairness. The judge failed to investigate allegations that Al-Shamsy confessed to charges under torture subsequent to enforced disappearance.
AOHR UK pointed out that this case is not the first of its kind in UAE, as Arab and foreign nationals were also accused in similar cases for opposing the Emirati regime. They were subjected to physical and psychological torture and received arbitrary sentences.
Examples of similar cases include: British citizen Matthew Hedges, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for his PhD research and Mahmoud Al-Jaydah, a Qatari citizen, detained for over two years in UAE for political reasons, (being Qatari).
AOHR UK called on the Omani authorities to take urgent steps to pressure the Emirati authorities to release Abdullah Al-Shamsy and enable him to obtain the necessary legal representation for addressing the violations to which he has been subjected.
