Family: Islamist activist detained in UAE

DUBAI, United Arab Emi­rates (AP) — Secu­rity agents detained a rights activist Sun­day in the north­ern United Arab Emi­rates as part of an appar­ent widen­ing crack­down on per­ceived oppo­si­tion fig­ures, a fam­ily mem­ber and a watch­dog group said.

The deten­tion is the sec­ond in less than a week in the emi­rate of Ras al-Khaimah and reflects stepped up pres­sures by UAE author­i­ties on Islamist groups, social media activists and oth­ers con­sid­ered to be poten­tial foes of the country’s net­work of rul­ing clans.

Although the UAE has not faced street protests linked to last year’s Arab Spring upris­ings, secu­rity offi­cials have increas­ingly tar­geted web sites and groups urg­ing a greater role for the pub­lic in the nation’s affairs. Author­i­ties also have warned about the pos­si­ble expand­ing influ­ence of Islamist ide­ol­ogy that could clash with Western-friendly poli­cies in the Gulf.

In the lat­est inci­dent, activist Saleh al-Dhufairi was led away by secu­rity agents after prayers at a mosque in Ras al-Khaimah, the most north­ern of the seven semi­au­tonomous emi­rates com­pris­ing the UAE, said his son Hassan.

The elder al-Dhufairi was arrested by author­i­ties last month for web post­ings crit­i­cal of state secu­rity oper­a­tions, then released. He was referred to a state secu­rity court on charges of attempt­ing to “stir sedi­tion and abuse reli­gion,” accord­ing to the state news agency WAM at the time.

UAE offi­cials had no imme­di­ate com­ment on Sunday’s detention.

The London-based Emi­rates Cen­ter for Human Rights urged author­i­ties to grant al-Dhufairi imme­di­ate access to legal coun­sel and make his where­abouts known.

“The UAE author­i­ties are act­ing with impunity and with a com­plete dis­re­gard for the rule of law,” said a state­ment by the group.

Last week, a mem­ber of Ras al-Khaimah’s rul­ing fam­ily was placed under full-time guard in a palace for appar­ent affil­i­a­tion with an Islamist group call­ing for more polit­i­cal open­ness in the UAE, accord­ing to rel­a­tives. It remains unclear, how­ever, whether author­i­ties will try to bring for­mal charges against Sheik Sul­tan al-Qasimi, a cousin of the Ras al-Khaimah ruler.

Six other pro-reform activists — some of them mem­bers of the same Islamist group, known as al-Islah, or Reform — also are being held by UAE offi­cials after being stripped of their cit­i­zen­ship for crit­i­ciz­ing the country’s rulers.

Last year, five polit­i­cal activists, includ­ing a promi­nent blog­ger and an eco­nom­ics pro­fes­sor who has fre­quently lec­tured at Abu Dhabi’s branch of the Sor­bonne uni­ver­sity, were con­victed of anti-state crimes after sign­ing an online peti­tion call­ing for a greater pub­lic voice in the country’s affairs.

They were freed on a pres­i­den­tial order, but the charges against them have not been offi­cially dropped.

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