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Despite the major changes that some Arab countries have experienced after the revolutions of the Arab Spring, their peoples and other peoples continue to regress due to legislation and restrictions imposed by governments in order to eliminate their opponents and protect their interests. In the past, freedom in the world had recorded a worldwide decline in political rights and civil liberties for 13 consecutive years from 2005 to 2018.
According to the report, authoritarian states in the Middle East and North Africa continued to suppress their opposition in 2018, and even the few democracies in the region were hurt by themselves. However, elections in some countries can lead to stability in these countries and pave the way for modest progress. "
"Political repression has intensified in Egypt, with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi being re-elected with 97% of the vote after security forces arbitrarily imprisoned potential competitors," the report said. Sudan has also continued to stifle opposition by targeting more and more members of opposition political parties, trade unions, human rights defenders and students, and subjected them to torture and torture. other forms of ill-treatment, as well as the use of legal, administrative and other measures to restrict peaceful protests. And to ban them illegally. The report also mentions security and the humanitarian situation in the states of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, which he calls Mazariyah.
In Saudi Arabia, "after the government was commended for lifting the strict ban on women's leadership, the authorities arrested prominent women's rights activists and even insisted on the moderate forms of women's rights." # 39; opposition. " "The evidence that the crown prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, personally ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Gamal Khashoggi in Istanbul has wiped out all remaining hopes for the young prince to emerge," the report added. As a reformer. "Freedom House is a monitoring organization that brings together an annual report on the state of democracy and human rights around the world.The Freedom in the World report is a reference for policymakers and academics. who study democracy.
Sudan
In this regard, the group of Sudanese opposition professionals said that three people had been killed as a result of torture by members of the security services. In a statement, he stated that two people had been arrested in the state of Southern Kordofan, then died "of torture", and that one teacher had died in the same way in the region of Kordofan. Khashm al-Qirba, in the east of the country. According to the statement, "The regime of assassination and tyranny has not only fired on unarmed citizens, and Galil has not healed its leaders to legalize the physical and psychological torture of detainees, but to follow them. in prison cellars and blood cells, in order to spend their lives with every spirit of vengeance and barbarism ".
Members of the 36-year-old teacher's family confirmed that the security services had arrested him at his home after returning from a protest march demanding the overthrow of the government's government. President Omar al-Bashir. They said security officials had told them that the cause of death was poisoning, but his relatives confirmed that there were traces of torture on his body and they claimed that he had been beaten and poisoned. For its part, the state security committee, Kassala, said in a statement that the teacher had died of illness during the investigation.
He died later after arriving at the hospital. Thousands of local residents have sown the body of the teacher and chanted slogans calling for the "punishment" that caused his death. About 300 professors and lecturers from the University of Sudan staged a protest against the Bashir regime, a spokesman said. They signed a petition called the University of Khartoum Initiative, which included a number of demands, including the formation of a transitional government in Sudan.
The demonstrations, which began on 19 December last year, were mainly triggered by a protest against the three-fold increase in the price of bread, but turned into demonstrations to demand the end of the Bashir regime, arrived in power 30 years ago. Sudanese have been facing growing economic difficulties for years. The country is suffering from high inflation and many cities are facing shortages of bread and fuel. According to the BBC.
The Sudanese authorities have declared that the number of people killed in the clashes has reached 30 since the beginning of the demonstrations. But human rights groups claim that this number has exceeded 40 The head of the National Intelligence and Security Service has ordered the release of all those arrested since the beginning of the demonstration. According to human rights NGOs, the National Security and Intelligence Service, which has been raging since the protests began, has arrested more than 1,000 protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists.
United Arab Emirates
The UN Human Rights Office said the UAE should release democracy activist Ahmed Mansour, who has been convicted for 10 years by a court for criticizing the government for its websites. social networks. The state security court in the United Arab Emirates has upheld the conviction of Mansour, who until then was incarcerated was one of the few public defenders of human rights in the UAE, the agency said. press release.
"We are concerned that Mansur's conviction and the severe judgment handed down to him are related to the exercise of his right to freedom of opinion and expression," he told reporters. Rafina Chamdassani, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for Human Rights. "We urge the UAE government to immediately and unconditionally release Mansour and ensure that individuals are not punished for expressing critical views about the government or its allies," she said.
The court upheld Mansour's decision in May 2018 to become final. The penalty included a fine of one million dirhams ($ 270,000). The UAE is a commercial and tourist center and follows an absolutist regime that does not tolerate public criticism. "This is certainly not the only case in the UAE," said Shamdasani. She added that activist Nasser bin Ghaith was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 2017 after criticizing Twitter for human rights violations in Egypt and the politicization of the justice system in the UAE.
Mansour, a 49-year-old electrical engineer and poet, was among five activists convicted of insulting UAE leaders in 2011, but was pardoned the same year. He was arrested again in March 2017 for "spreading false information, rumors and propaganda of malicious ideas promoting sedition, sectarianism and hatred". According to AFP.
He has also been accused of using social media to "undermine national unity, social peace and state reputation." In 2015, Mansour was awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, an annual award given by a committee of international human rights organizations to document the situation of human rights defenders. human rights in the United Arab Emirates.
British academic Matthew Hedges said that he had "no other choice than to confess" espionage charges during his detention in the UAE. united for nearly seven months. The United Arab Emirates amnestied Hedges, sentenced in November to life imprisonment after publishing a video in which he admitted to being a member of British MI6 and seeking military regimes purchased by the United Arab Emirates.
Hedges appeared in the recording, in which the sound was not clear in some parts and it was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the translation that l & # 39; He was accompanying, and he says that he continued with sources as a PhD student. Britain denied being a spy and welcomed her amnesty. "The confession tape, if I understood correctly, because I did not see it, is inlaid, stolen or made up of parts of my images for months in prison. of the court and I was subjected to coercion, threats of torture and psychological pressure, "said Hedges. "There was no other option than to recognize."
Asked about the accusations made by Hedges, an emirati official said the academic had not suffered any physical or psychological abuse during his detention and denied that the recorded confessions had been changed. Jaber Al Lamki, executive director of media and strategic communications at the UAE's National Media Council, said: "The truth is that Hedges was an academic and for a while a businessman, but that He was still a spy.
Hedges said the UAE authorities had asked him to "steal documents and information from the British Foreign Ministry" and that he had been shocked. But Al-Lemki denied that the UAE authorities demanded such a request, calling this statement nonsense. The Hedges research focused on UAE-sensitive issues, such as the administrative structures of the security services and the tribal system and the consolidation of political power in Abu Dhabi.
Bahrain
In the same context, the Bahrain News Agency and the human rights group stated that the Court of Cassation had sentenced three of the opposition leaders to a prison sentence of perpetuity, for communication with Qatar. A Bahraini court sentenced Sheikh Ali Salman, secretary general of the Al-Wefaq opposition group, to life imprisonment in November, and two other leaders of Al-Wefaq, Sheikh Hassan Sultan and Ali al-Aswad. , to cancel their previous acquittal.
The Court of Cassation was rendered by the Court of Cassation. Al-Wefaq, who has close ties to the country's Shiite majority, advocates social and political reform in the country, led by a Sunni royal family. The decision "came for political reasons," the association said in a statement. "Today, another decision regarding the right to freedom of expression in Bahrain has been made and reveals that the country's judicial system is a complete joke," said Samah Hadid, head of the campaign for the program for the country. Middle East at Amnesty International. According to Reuters.
The Bahrain Institute for Democracy and Democracy, based in London, condemned this decision and said it marked the end of a long trial of his son, Awar. Protesters have regularly clashed with security forces since the authorities cracked down on street protests in 2011. Security forces have been hit by several bombings. Manama says Qatar supports the unrest, which Doha denies. Sultan and Black were tried in absentia. Salman has already been jailed for four years for inciting hatred and insulting the Interior Ministry after his arrest in 2015.
In addition, the UN Office for Human Rights has called on Bahrain to release activist Nabeel Rajab and said his support for the five-year sentence handed down against the Bahraini court bore witness to "continued repression critics of the government ". Rajab, known for his harsh criticism of the government and who played a leading role in demonstrations for democracy in 2011, was sentenced in February for leaflets on social media accusing prison authorities of torture and criticizing the strikes. Saudi airlines in Yemen. "Court decision highlights ongoing crackdown on government opponents in Bahrain through arbitrary detentions, travel bans, harassment, threats, withdrawal of citizenship and other methods ", said Rafina Chamdassani, spokesman for the Human Rights Bureau in Geneva.
Saudi Arabia
On the other hand, the family of prominent Saudi cleric Ahmad al-Ammari said that he had died five months after his detention, while the number of critics regarding the rights record of the country's population has risen. man in Riyadh after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi had increased. Amari, former dean of the Islamic University of Medina, was taken to a government hospital after a cerebral hemorrhage, said the London-based human rights group Human Rights Group. Abdullah's son, Ammari, confirmed his death on Twitter.
Activists said that Amari was arrested by security forces in August when he broke into his home and then kept him in solitary confinement. It is believed that he and other people arrested by the authorities at the same time are closely related to the prominent religious scholar Safar al-Hawali, arrested in July 2018 after publishing a book criticizing the Saudi ruling family. Saudi campaigning against opposition, including the arrest of activists, liberal intellectuals and Islamist activists, reportedly tortured, even with the introduction of important social and economic reforms by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. According to Reuters.
Saudi Arabia, which bans public demonstrations and political parties, says it does not have political prisoners and denies allegations of torture. According to officials, the monitoring of activists is necessary to ensure social stability. The killing of Khashoggi inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in October sparked a global scandal, tarnished the image of the Crown Prince and drew the world's attention to the treatment of activists and the the war in Yemen. Khashoggi had known for a long time what was going on in the royal court before embarking on a critique of Prince Mohammed.
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