URGENT ACTION
PROTECT DETAINED LIBYAN MEN FROM TORTURE

At least ten Libyan men, some with dual nationality, were detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between 13 August and 3 September. The authorities have not told four of the men’s families where they are detained. By withholding information about their whereabouts from the men’s families or legal representatives, the UAE has subjected them to enforced disappearance. All are at risk of torture or other forms of ill-treatment.

Businessman Kamel Eldarat was summoned for questioning at Dubai’s Bur Dubai police station on 26 August. Later that day around 20 officers in six police vehicles returned him to his house, searched it and detained him. His son Momed Eldarat, also a businessman, was detained the following day. Both men are US citizens. Officials have not told their families where they are.

Mohamed el-Aradi, 50, was summoned by police on 28 August, questioned for several hours at a police station and then taken back to his house. It was searched until around midnight and then he was detained. His brother Salim el-Aradi, 46, was arrested at a hotel two hours later, on 29 August at around 2am. The officers did not say why they were arresting him. Both have lived without restriction in the UAE for around 20 years. All the men are thought to have been detained by the UAE’s State Security Agency (SSA).

Family members of some of those detained have told Amnesty International that the Libyan embassy in the UAE has been unable or unwilling to provide consular support to the families. At least five other men have been detained. They are: Bashir al-Shabah, al-Tahir al-Qulfat, Mohammad al-Fighi, al-Sadiq al-Kikli, Mahmoud bin Gharbeia and a sixth man named Raf’at Hadaga. Amnesty International does not have any further information about the circumstances of their arrests.

Please write immediately in Arabic, English or your own language:

 Urging the authorities to disclose the whereabouts of all the detained men to their families and to clarify the legal basis for their detention;

 Calling on them to publicly guarantee that all the men will be protected from torture and other ill-treatment and ensure that all are given prompt access to a lawyer and to any medical attention they may require;

 Urging them to ensure that all the men are promptly charged with a recognizably criminal offence or else released.

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