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Summary Amnesty International has urged UAE to allow the stateless blogger to return.
.Forcing a stateless man born in the United Arab Emirates to choose between indefinite detention there or exile in Thailand heralds a further decline in the UAEs human rights situation, Amnesty said.Ahmed Abdul Khaleq, a 35-year-old blogger and activist from the UAEs stateless bidoon minority, was arrested last year with four other activists accused of insulting the countrys rulers.They were released by presidential amnesty in November.On May 21, he was granted a Comoros passport. But he was re-arrested the next day and held until being forced to leave the country on Monday, according to the London-based rights watchdog.Authorities obtained a visa for him and booked him a flight to Bangkok early on Monday.The UAE authorities simply must not force peaceful political activists out of the country and must allow Ahmed Abdul Khaleq to return unconditionally to his home, said Amnesty.This event sets alarm bells ringing regarding the fate of others held in the UAE in connection with alleged plots against state security, said Ann Harrison, Amnestys deputy Middle East and North Africa programme director.His departure came one day after the UAE announced it has dismantled a group plotting against state security without identifying their affiliation or the number of arrests.Since then, at least seven members of the UAEs Muslim Brotherhood-linked Reform and Social Guidance Association (Al-Islah) -- of which Abdul Khaleq is also a member -- have been arrested in the UAE, it said.Amnesty International believes they may be prisoners of conscience, held solely for their peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association.UAE authorities last year revoked the citizenship of seven other Islamists from Al-Islah.Any detainee suspected of crimes against the UAEs state security must be promptly charged with an internationally recognisable criminal offence and tried fairly, or be set free, said Harrison.Earlier on Tuesday, the son of prominent lawyer Mohammed al-Roken, who has defended activists, told AFP his father had been arrested.The UAE, a federation of seven emirates led by oil-rich Abu Dhabi, has not seen any pro-reform protests like those which have swept other Arab countries, including Gulf neighbours Bahrain and Oman, since last year.But the government has increased its clampdown on voices of dissent and calls for democratic reforms.
