Emirati activist and writer Hamad Al Shamsi said that the prisons of the Israeli occupation are no different from the prisons of Abu Dhabi in terms of violations and the disappearance of detainees for many years.
This came in a comment on the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from the occupation prisons in the recent exchange deal, some of whom had been missing for more than 20 years.
Al Shamsi, who holds the position of Executive Director of the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center, said that “a girl who has not seen her detained father since she was young, a detainee who is forced to leave his wife pregnant with his son, and does not see his son until after his release, after more than ten years, an elderly mother who leaves without her son being able to take a last look at her, because he is detained, and the occupation refuses to allow him to do so.. A sick detainee who needs treatment, but the occupation leaves him to face his fate.”
He pointed out that “these painful stories come to us from occupied Palestine, but unfortunately, we have similar stories in the Emirates.”
Al Shamsi wondered in a post on his account on the X platform: “Did anyone imagine seeing the sons of the Emirates suffering what the sons of Palestine suffer under occupation? Did we think that injustice could reach this level?”
Dozens of Emirati prisoners of conscience face difficult detention conditions no less than those of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, in terms of torture, enforced disappearance, and deprivation of the most basic rights.
