BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese man who was detained within the United Arab Emirates on unknown expenses has died in custody, rights observers and members of the family mentioned on Friday, elevating questions on his potential mistreatment by authorities.
A committee of members of the family of Lebanese residents detained within the UAE, together with the person who died earlier this month, alleged in a press release that Ghazi Ezzedine, 55, had died beneath torture.
The UAE international ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Sima Watling, a researcher with Amnesty Worldwide targeted on the Arab Gulf nation, mentioned that in keeping with Ezzedine’s household, he had been arrested on March 22 together with eight different folks, together with two of his brothers, on unknown expenses.
Ezzedine died on Could 4, she mentioned. His household was solely notified a number of days later, when his son was requested by authorities to return to the cemetery and establish the physique, she added. Ezzedine’s son was solely permitted to see his father’s face, whereas his physique was saved coated.
UAE authorities denied the household’s request to carry him again to Lebanon for burial, Watling mentioned. The 2 brothers who have been detained together with him have been subsequently launched from detention however banned from leaving the nation.
A Lebanese official who’s following the case instructed The Related Press that Ezzedine’s explanation for dying was unknown. He mentioned eight members of the identical household have been detained for unknown causes. The official spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of diplomatic contacts between Lebanon and the UAE are ongoing relating to the dying and the repatriation of the physique.
Afif Shouman, head of a bunch of Lebanese households with family detained within the Gulf nation, mentioned Ezzedine had lived within the UAE for 30 years “with out a lot as a visitors ticket.”
There have been “no suspicions in regards to the man that he received concerned in political issues and even non secular ones,” he mentioned.
UAE authorities have detained dozens of Lebanese, principally Shiites, previously over alleged hyperlinks to the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The UAE, like different Gulf Cooperation Council members, considers Hezbollah a terrorist group.
In 2019, the UAE sentenced one Lebanese nationwide to life in jail and two to 10 years in jail on expenses of hyperlinks to Hezbollah.
Amnesty Worldwide mentioned in a press release on the time the trial of the lads “failed to satisfy worldwide honest trial requirements,” because the proof included confessions that have been “extracted beneath duress, and the defendants have been detained incommunicado for months and denied entry to legal professionals throughout interrogation and investigation.”
Watling mentioned Amnesty is worried in regards to the lack of transparency relating to Ezzedine’s case and the linked detentions.
“Whether it is discovered that his dying was certainly illegal, they have to be sure that all these suspected of torture and illegal killing, together with these with command duty, are held accountable,” she mentioned.