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An international non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

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Economist Still Confined in Abu Dhabi for Critical Remarks on Social Media Regarding Egypt

June 7, 2021

June 7, 2021

HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum
Vice-President and Prime Minister
Prime Minister’s Office
P.O. Box: 212000
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Fax: +971 4 330 4044
Email: info@pmo.gov.ae

Your Highness:

The Committee of Concerned Scientists is an independent organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars devoted to the protection and advancement of human rights and scientific freedom for colleagues all over the world.

We write today to emphasize our grave concern for Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith, a U.S.-educated economist and former lecturer at University of Paris IV Abu Dhabi who has been imprisoned for over five years, and whose health has deteriorated. We have written before but considerable time has passed with no change to his situation and it truly calls for review and his release.

We wrote you concerning Dr. bin Ghaith’s case on June 7, 2016, February 22, 2017, January 15, 2019, and July 30, 2020. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017. The charges – “committing a hostile act against a foreign state” and “posting false information in order to harm the reputation and stature of the state and one of its institutions” – were based on Tweets that were critical of the government of Egypt and of the legal process to which he was being subjected.

Social media posts are not criminal offenses, they are a form of free expression, one of the most fundamental of human rights. These charges, and the conviction of Dr. bin Ghaith, are illegitimate and we urge you to see to it that he is released immediately and unconditionally.

From August 2015 to April 2016, Dr. bin Ghaith was held incommunicado, denied medical treatment, and allegedly tortured. Since his conviction, he has been held at Al-Razeen maximum security prison, where, it is reported, he has been mistreated, subjected to solitary confinement, and gone on hunger strikes to protest these abuses.

As early as December 2018, it was reported that Dr. bin Ghaith was being denied his blood pressure medication and suffering from a visual impairment, and had become too weak to stand by himself.

In February of this year, Mary Lawlor, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, asserted that the ongoing mistreatment of Dr. bin Ghaith is “in violation of human rights standards and may constitute torture.”

We continue to be appalled at this entirely preventable deterioration of his health, and we urge you to, at a minimum, allow him access to adequate medical care, and to bring an end to the abuses in prison to which he is being subjected.

However, given the fact that he has been imprisoned simply for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and association, we emphasize our call for you to release Dr. bin Ghaith without delay, and to expunge his conviction.

Thank you for your consideration of this urgent matter, and we look forward to receiving your response.

Sincerely,
signatures
Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich, Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer
Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

 
Cc:
Minister of Interior
Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Zayed Sport City, Arab Gulf Street, near to Shaikh Zayed Mosque
POB: 398
Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates
Fax: +971 2 402 2762/+971 2 441 5780
Email: moi@moi.gov.ae

 
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Crown Prince Court
King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Street
P.O. Box: 124
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Fax: +971 2 668 6622

 
Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba
Embassy of the United Arab Emirates
3522 International Court, NW
Suite #400
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: 1 (202)-243-2432
Email: info@uaeembassy-usa.org

Filed Under: CCS Cases, United Arab Emirates Tagged With: Abu Dhabi, Nasser bin Ghaith

Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Paul H. Plotz, M.D., Washington, DC

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Astronomy – Arno Penzias, New Enterprises Associates*

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Medical Sciences – J. Joseph Blum, Duke University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deceased), Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser, Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy, University of Pittsburg

David Gross, (2004 Nobel Prize in Physics), Kavil Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara*

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Louis Nirenberg, New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Honorary Board Members

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, (1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine), New England Biolabs*

Myriam Sarachick, City College of New York

Harold Scheraga, Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin*

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

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