Cairo, 25 March 2012

A Strong dissatisfaction is expressed by ANHRI for the arrest of the activist “Mohammed Abdul Razzaq Al-Siddiq by Al Sharjah Emirate police.

The activist was arrested on dawn on Sunday from his home, after his statement on his personal page on “Twitter” criticizing the Governor of Sharjah, Sultan Al Qassimi, who pointed out that the state will not tolerate what he called “betrayers with hidden loyalty ” in a clear reference to the opponents of the system of the UAE. There was also in this statement of Al Qassimi accusations that there are those who work for foreign agendas and mess with the security of the UAE and its stability and a warning for everybody to be beware of them in addition to comments about the indigenous and the non-indigenous in the UAE and the upper hand of the UAE towards who are not originally Emirate by giving them the nationality and education, which was described as racism and discrimination and cconsidered a deep wound in the national body of the State of UAE by El Siddiq.

Al Siddiq wrote this morning on his personal page on “Twitter” https://twitter.com/ #! / Malsiddiq:
“The police at the door of my house they want to enter the house. My beloved brothers, if I am arrested would you raise a voice for me? After this a series of information followed about the police breaking into his home and arresting him without obvious reasons.

It is worth noting that Al Siddiq is one of the 7 advocates of reform whom UAE withdrew their nationality arbitrarily in December 2011, after they signed a reform petition directed to the ruler of the UAE in March 2011 calling him to undertake reforms in the legislature to ensure a fair election of the National Council. This was considered an offense by the authorities that decided to strip them of their UAE nationality, in a clear violation of all human rights conventions – signed by the United Arab Emirates – which prohibits stripping a person of his nationality on racial, ethnic, religious or political

ANHRI said: “What was done by the United Arab Emirates towards activist Mohammed Siddiq and all the seven advocates of reform stripped of their nationality is not acceptable at all. Is it possible to judge a thought or a view by deprivation of national identity and accusation of Betrayal?”

ANHRI added: “Anywhere, there should never be a violation of freedom of opinion which did not exceed personal pages on social networking sites. Isn’t it the right of every citizen to express his criticism of the governor, even if this governor did not like the criticism? Time of oppression and suppression is over, and the UAE should not repeat the fatal errors of regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and others.”

Therefore, AMHRI calls for the immediate release of Al Siddiq and all prisoners of conscience in the UAE, and the re-consideration of the withdrawal of nationality against him and the rest of the seven reformers, and to ensure a fair trial for them, if it is proven what the authorities claimed as reasons to judge them.

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