http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/07/2012716172114669177.html
UAE deports online activist to Thailand | |
Ahmed Abdul Khaleq was deported on a Comoros passport after stripping him of his right to reside in the emirates.
Last Modified: 16 Jul 2012 20:02
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Khaleq's website included appeals for greater public voice in the UAE [Photo: The Gulf Centre for Human Rights]
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The United Arab Emirates has deported an online activist to Thailand after stripping him of his right to reside in the emirates, a rights group said.
The London-based Emirates Centre for Human Rights said activist Ahmed Abdul Khaleq was deported on a Comoros passport arranged by UAE authorities in the first such banishment by the country.
He is among a group of activists whose residency or citizenship has been revoked by UAE officials after they campaigned for reforms. Khaleq's website included appeals for a greater public voice in affairs of the UAE, which bans political parties and allows only hand-picked voters to cast ballots for a national advisory assembly. He was among five political activists - including an economics professor who frequently lectured at Abu Dhabi's branch of the Sorbonne university - who were convicted last year of anti-state crimes after signing an online petition calling for a greater public role in politics. They were later freed by a presidential order, but the charges against them were not officially dropped. It was unclear whether the UAE would seek further deportations. UAE officials had no immediate comment. Khaleq, 35, spoke briefly to Reuters by telephone from the Abu Dhabi airport. "I have been in jail for two months," said Khaleq. "They didn't charge me with anything, but some police officers said ... (it was) because I am one of the activists who talked about the rights of the stateless people in the UAE." Targeting suspected 'plotters' The deportation on Monday followed a separate wave of detentions this week of at least seven people suspected of plotting against the ruling system in the Western-allied Emirates, which has stepped up pressures on perceived dissent since the political upheavals across the region began last year. The UAE is a key Western military foothold in the Gulf, including a base for US warplanes, and has sharply boosted its oil-exporting profile with a pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf - which Iran hasthreatened to block in retaliation for tighter Western sanctions. The UAE has not faced street protests or violence over calls for change, but authorities have sharply increased web monitoring and other measures against groups urging for reforms in the UAE's tightly ruled federation of seven emirates.
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