UAE abusing, denying treatment to terminally-ill female detainee, HRW says

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that officials in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are mistreating and denying adequate medical care to a jailed terminally-ill Emirati woman.

The New York-based rights group said on Tuesday that 42-year-old Alia Abdel Nour, who was diagnosed with breast cancer a month into her detention more than three years ago, is also being denied regular contact with her family.

“The cruel and senseless suffering Abdel Nour and her family have been subjected to blows the UAE’s rhetoric around tolerance right out of the water,” HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement.

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The rights group then called on the Emirati authorities to release the woman “given her current condition.”

“Abdel Nour should be allowed to spend her last days watched over by her family, not by prison guards who keep her shackled to a hospital bed,” the statement noted.

HRW added that Abdel Nour’s family says she was forced to sign a document stating she was refusing chemotherapy. Doctors say she has only a few months to live.

“Abdel Nour has also said that security forces have subjected her to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment,” the statement pointed out.

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Abdel Nour was arrested on July 28, 2015, from her home in the UAE.

She was forcibly disappeared to an unknown location for four months without being allowed to communicate with her family and without the disclosure of any information about her fate or whereabouts to anyone.

Abdel Nour claims she was kept blindfolded while in solitary confinement for four months, and denied regular access to the bathroom and contact with her family.

Even though she was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after her arrest, security forces interrogated her while blindfolded and shackled, and threatened to torture her and her family.

Abdel Nour was then charged with financing terrorism and dealing with terrorists outside the country in 2017. She was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.

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The Emirati woman has her hands and feet shackled to a hospital bed day and night. Prison guards said last year that the chains would only be removed upon death, according to family members.

“While heart wrenching, Abdel Nour’s case is not unique. UAE leaders should divert their efforts from public relations campaigns to actually eradicating abuse and instituting the rule of law,” Whitson said.

Earlier this month, the London-based International Campaign for Freedom in the United Arab Emirates (ICFUAE) released a short film entitled “Alison” based on Abdel Nour's case.

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