United Arab Emirates: Prisoner in Terminal Stages of Cancer: Alia Abdelnoor Mohamed Abdelnoor
Alia Abdelnoor Mohamed Abdelnoor is serving a 10-year prison sentence and is in the terminal stages of cancer. On 10 January 2019, as her health deteriorated, Alia was transferred from a government hospital to Tawam Hospital in al-Ain in the UAE. She is chained to her hospital bed and held in solitary confinement. Her family was not immediately informed of the transfer and was only able to visit her in hospital for the first time on 11 February.
First UA: 26/19 Index: MDE 25/9914/2019 United Arab Emirates Date: 28 February 2019
URGENT ACTION
PRISONER IN TERMINAL STAGES OF CANCER
Alia Abdelnoor Mohamed Abdelnoor is serving a 10-year prison sentence and is in the
terminal stages of cancer. On 10 January 2019, as her health deteriorated, Alia was
transferred from a government hospital to Tawam Hospital in al-Ain in the UAE. She is
chained to her hospital bed and held in solitary confinement. Her family was not
immediately informed of the transfer and was only able to visit her in hospital for the first
time on 11 February.
TAKE ACTION: WRITE AN APPEAL IN YOUR OWN WORDS OR USE THIS MODEL LETTER
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
Crown Prince Court
King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz
Al Saud Street,
P.O. Box 124
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Fax: +971 2 668 6622
@MohamedBinZayed
Your Highness,
Alia Abdelnoor Mohamed Abdelnoor, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence, is in the terminal stages of cancer that
has spread to her vital organs. On 10 January 2019, as her health deteriorated, Alia was transferred from a government
hospital to Tawam Hospital in al-Ain. Her family was not immediately informed of the transfer and was only allowed
to visit her in hospital for the first time on 11 February. Even though she is bed-ridden and too weak to walk unaided,
she is chained to her bed and held in isolation in a windowless room. This amounts to torture and other ill-treatment.
Alia Abdelnoor has already served three years and a half of her sentence, and is about to die.
As the United Arab Emirates have proclaimed 2019 to be a year of tolerance, we urge you to show Alia Abdlenoor
clemency and order her early release on humanitarian grounds as provided for by article 32 of the Federal Law
No.43 of 1992.
Yours sincerely,
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Alia Abdelnoor Mohamed Abdelnoor, now aged 38, has been a cancer patient since at least 2008, when she underwent surgery in
Germany. Since her arrest and detention in 2015, she underwent further surgery and chemotherapy, but the cancer has since spread
to her liver and bones.
Prior to her arrest, Alia Abdelnoor had been fundraising to assist poor and war-affected women and children in Syria and some needy
families living in the UAE. On 28 July 2015, Alia was arrested at her home in the Emirate of Ajman by members of the State Security
Agency (SSA), who raided the house. They did not show a warrant. Alia was beaten and was then taken away blindfolded to an
undisclosed place of detention. Three months later she was allowed to call her family for the first time.
During her enforced disappearance, Alia was held in solitary confinement. She was interrogated for long periods of time while handcuffed
and blindfolded; threatened with electroshocks and with the killing of her parents and sister if she did not confess. She was finally forced
to sign her “confession” without reading the document.
Her trial began on 27 October 2015, on charges of collaborating with a “terrorist” organisation based outside the country. She denied
the charges. In December 2015, she was moved to al-Wathba prison in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital. On 15 May 2017, the State Security
Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi sentenced her to 10 years in prison under the 2004 anti-terror law and the 2012
cybercrimes law.
In May 2018, Alia was beaten in prison, handcuffed and shackled and deprived of sleep, and she was forced to stand for long hours
despite her inability to do so. As her health further deteriorated, she was transferred to a government hospital where she was chained
to her bed.
Despite certain safeguards in the UAE Constitution and laws, the rights of detainees upon arrest are routinely disregarded, especially in
cases where the SSA is involved. SSA officials generally arrest people without warrants, then take them to unofficial secret detention
facilities where they are kept for weeks or months without charge or access to legal representation. Detainees are often tortured and
otherwise ill-treated. Amnesty International has found that officials often ignore for months families’ attempts to find out where detainees
are held. Detainees held incommunicado or in undisclosed places of detention are at heightened risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
Such deprivation of liberty by state authorities who conceal an individual’s whereabouts, placing them outside the protection of the law,
is enforced disappearance, which is a crime under international law.
PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: Arabic, English
You can also write in your own language.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 11 April 2019
Please check with the Amnesty office in your country if you wish to send appeals after the deadline.
NAME AND PREFERRED PRONOUN: Alia Abdelnoor Mohamed Abdelnoor (she/her)