Alkarama raises new cases of reprisals with the UN Secretary-General in Iraq and Saudi Arabia...

In Iraq, six members of the NGO Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly were subjected to reprisals for their work documenting cases of enforced disappearances and submitting them, together with Alkarama, to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED). On 7 September 2015, Salam Al Hashimi, the NGO’s founder, was prevented by the security services from participating in a videoconference with the CED experts to brief them on his concerns in Iraq ahead of the country’s review. Shortly after, he was threatened by two armed men of the Presidential Regiment and asked to “stop working on cases of enforced disappearances.” After this event, on 18 September 2015, three other members of the NGO, Imad Taha, Dorgham Al Rasheed and Ali Hashim were arrested by the military forces, handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to an unknown location, where they were insulted and heavily beaten, before being released a few hours later. Similarly, on 6 March 2016, Imad Amara and Faisal Al Tamimi were stopped at a checkpoint in Baghdad by the military forces, handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to an unknown location, where they were severely beaten while being interrogated about their work with families of disappeared persons. They were released in Baghdad later that night.

In Saudi Arabia, where the authorities continue to crack down on human rights activists, particularly members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Associations (ACPRA), an NGO founded in 2009 which documented cases of human rights violations in Saudi Arabia to be submitted to the UN, often via Alkarama.On 6 July 2014, ACPRA member and lawyer Waleed Abu Al Khair was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Specialised Criminal Court of Riyadh for, amongst others, “publicly defaming in the judiciary and discrediting Saudi Arabia by alienating international organisations against the Kingdom” in relation to his collaboration with the UN human rights mechanisms. He is currently detained at Riyadh's Malaz Prison despite an Opinion issued by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) calling upon his immediate release. In the recent conclusions of Committee against Torture (CAT) following Saudi Arabia’s review, the UN experts expressed concern over the fact that “the State party has sought to punish individuals who have reported on alleged human rights violations”, including Waleed Abu Al Khair.

... And expresses concerns over continued cases of reprisals in Egypt, Morocco and Oman

In Egypt, in a context of unprecedented crackdown on NGOs and HRDs, the case of Alkarama’s former Country Representative Ahmed Mefreh, which was raised by the UNSG in his 2014 report, saw new developments. Although on 10 March 2016, he was acquitted by the Alexandria Criminal Court in the initial case opened against him on trumped-up charges, including of “joining an illegal group aiming at impeding the enforcement of the Constitution and the law” and “damaging national unity and social peace while pursuing terrorist goals to overthrow the authorities”, he is nevertheless awaiting a new trial before the Court of Cassation since the Public Prosecution appealed the Court’s decision. Moreover, his lawyer was recently informed that his name was listed in a case against several HRDs for “having received foreign funding” and could thus be tried in abstentia.

In Oman, where the retaliation against HRDs has become systematic, Said Jadad, a prominent activist whose case was raised in the UNSG 2015 report, suffered from further reprisals. After being sentenced in March 2015 to three years of imprisonment for “harming the State’s prestige,” after having met with the Special Rapporteur on the rights and freedom of peaceful assembly and association (SR FPAA) Maina Kiai, his sentence to one year imprisonment for “using an information network to disseminate material that would prejudice public order” was confirmed by the Court of Appeal in November 2015. Today, he remains detained in Arzat prison in Salalah, in poor conditions and with his heath seriously deteriorating, since the prison authorities systematically refuse to allow him to see a doctor.

Finally, in Morocco, Ali Aarrass has been subjected to further reprisals while being detained at the Salé II prison due to the continuous denunciation of the acts of torture and ill-treatments he endured during his secret detention in 2010. Although the UNSG had already voiced concerns on his case in 2013, on 29 September 2015, several individuals in civilian clothes conducted a thorough and violent search of Aarrass’s cell, then threw him to the ground, insulted and severely beat him while he was pleading to see a doctor. Instead, one of the men threatened “to kill his mother” if he continued to draw attention to his case.

“We must keep in mind that the cases Alkarama raised with the UN Secretary General are only the tip of the iceberg, because so many victims are too scared to speak up”, says Inès Osman, Legal Coordinator at Alkarama. “In the Arab world, criticism is still considered as a “harm to the State’s prestige” and even sometimes as terrorism. Anyone who reports a violation to the UN is seen as someone who must be shut down immediately as he/she will tarnish the image of the State at the international level.” Today, Alkarama again urges all Arab states to ensure that all peaceful voices, including dissenting ones, can be heard without fear from reprisals.

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