Alkarama for Human Rights

Rachid Mesli is the legal director of Alkarama, a Geneva-based organization that documents human rights abuses throughout the Arab world. After Ahmed Ali Al-Salami died at Guantánamo Naval Base in 2006, his family asked Alkarama for assistance in arranging a secondary autopsy. As I recently reported, the doctor who performed that autopsy also requested that U.S. authorities send him Al-Salami's throat, which had gone missing. Now the Pentagon appears to be claiming that Alkarama made no such request, so I asked Mesli for a more detailed account of what happened.

Mohamed Al-Dainy, Geneva, October 2008

On 25 January 2010, Mohamed Al-Dainy, MP for the National Dialogue Front and an Iraqi human rights defender, was sentenced to death in abstentia by Central Court of Baghdad. He is accused of planning the April 2007 bombing of the Iraqi House of Representatives' cafeteria as well as other terrorist operations.

On the morning of 25 January 2010, local newspapers in Lebanon reported news of the death of an UNHCR-recognized Egyptian refugee by the name of Mahmoud Salama (56) in Rashaya prison on 23 January 2010. He died after suffering a heart attack according to security reports.

While visiting the home of an Emirati friend in Ras Al-Khayma, Mohamed Mostafa, 21 and of Palestinian origin, was arrested by UAE State Security forces on 22 July 2009. His brother and friends were also arrested at the same time; however they were released after three months of detention. At the time of the arrests, no judicial arrest warrants were presented nor were the victims told the reasons for their arrests. Following his arrest, Mohamed Mostafa remained in custody and was detained incommunicado in an unknown location by State Security forces for five months until 15 December 2009. During this period, he was frequently tortured, beaten and threatened by State Security officers, until he finally signed fabricated confessions. " We are 10, and you are 1..." the Security officers are quoted as having said "You will get tired and give in to what we want". Sources indicate that Mohamed Mostafa may have been arrested and tried by the UAE State Security at the request of the Syrian authorities, where Mr Mostafa was a student for a year in 2007.

The Editor in Chief of Taqadoumy news network, Hanevy Ould Dahah (33 year old resident of Nouakchott), was arrested on 18 June 2009 and held in custody for five days; after which he was brought before an investigative magistrate on charges of "civil and moral indecency". His arrest came after he published an article on Taqadoumy's website criticizing presidential candidate Ibrahima Moctar Sarr. Despite having served his subsequent six month sentence, he remains in custody.

When Mamdouh Diab's family visited him in Al Marg al Jadid prison on 5 January 2010, they were informed he was to be transferred to Shabeen Al-Qanater Police Station the same day in order to be processed for his release. However, his family has not received any news of him sicne and Police officers from the Shabeen Al-Qanater deny ever having received him at the police station. To date, his family have been unable to ascertain his whereabouts.

Having previously submitted his case as an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders on 20 November 2009, Alkarama has just learned that Yasser Al-Wazir was sentenced on 17 January 2010 to 8 years imprisonment by the Specialized Primary Criminal Court in Sana'a.