UAE Lawyers sentenced to 10 years in prison
On 2 July 2013, the Federal Supreme Court of United Arab Emirates (UAE) sentenced 56 people, including the prominent human rights lawyers Mohammed Al-Roken and Mohammed Al-Mansoori, to 10 years in prison.
Mohamed al-Mansoori and Mohamed Abdullah al-Roken were arrested on 16 and 17 July 2012. Their lawyer Salem al-Shehhi was arrested on 18 July 2012 at the offices of the State Security Prosecutor where he sought information about his clients. Al-Mansoori and Al-Roken stood trial in the mass trial of 94 government critics, which started at 4 March 2013. Many organizations that intended to monitor this trial were banned from the trial or even barred from entering the country at all. A coalition of human rights groups therefore stated on 3 July 2013 that the convictions were based on a fundamentally unfair trial.
Al-Roken provided legal assistance to victims of human rights abuses in the UAE, including to other human rights defenders. Before he was arrested, he defended the “UAE 5” ; five human rights defenders who were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment by a UAE court for their human rights work in November 2011 and subsequently released as a result of a Presidential amnesty.