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Ahmed Mansoor Al Shehhi is an Emirati blogger, human rights and reform activist arrested in 2011 for defamation and insults to the heads of state and tried in the
UAE Five The United Arab Emirates Five are five activists who were arrested in April 2011 on charges of breaking United Arab Emirates law of defamation by insulting heads of state, namely UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president Mohammed bi ...
trial. He was pardoned by UAE's president Sheikh
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar,  خليفة بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان‎; 7 September 1948 – 13 May 2022) was the second president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, serving from ...
. Mansoor was arrested again in March 2017 on charges of using social media platforms to threaten public order and publish false and misleading information. He was found guilty and convicted for threatening state security and given a prison sentence of 10 years.


Emergence

Mansoor was running an opposition blog calling for reforms and human rights within the United Arab Emirates. He was arrested as one of the
UAE Five The United Arab Emirates Five are five activists who were arrested in April 2011 on charges of breaking United Arab Emirates law of defamation by insulting heads of state, namely UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president Mohammed bi ...
in April 2011 on charges of breaking UAE law of defamation by insulting heads of state, namely UAE president
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan ( ar,  خليفة بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان‎; 7 September 1948 – 13 May 2022) was the second president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, serving from ...
, vice president
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum ( ar, محمد بن راشد آل مكتوم, links=no; ; born 15 July 1949) is the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the ruler of Dubai ...
, and Abu Dhabi crown prince
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan ( ar, مُحَمّد بِن زَايد آل نَهيَان, Moḥamed bin Zāyed Āl Nahyān; born 11 March 1961), colloquially known by his initials as MBZ, is the third president of the United Arab Emirates ...
through running an anti-government website that express anti-government views. He was pardoned by UAE's president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.


Surveillance

Following his pardon, Mansoor was monitored in 2013–2014 by the UAE government using mobile phone spyware developed by the
NSO Group NSO Group Technologies (NSO standing for Niv, Shalev and Omri, the names of the company's founders) is an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm primarily known for its proprietary spyware Pegasus, which is capable of remote zero-click surveillance o ...
. around the same time he had his passport confiscated, his car stolen, his email hacked, his location tracked, his bank account emptied, and was beaten by strangers twice in the same week. Around 2016–2017, Mansoor was targeted again by UAE contractor
DarkMatter DarkMatter was an art and activist collaboration between Janani Balasubramanian and Alok Vaid-Menon, known for their spoken word performances and queer/trans South Asian themes. Background Balasubramanian and Vaid-Menon, both Indian American, m ...
. This occurred under
Project Raven DarkMatter Group is a computer security company founded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2014 or 2015. The company describes itself as a purely defensive company, but several whistleblowers have alleged that it is involved in offensive cybe ...
, a clandestine surveillance and hacking operation targeting other governments, militants, and human rights activists critical of the UAE monarchy, which came to light in January 2019. Ahmed Mansoor was code named "Egret" in Project Raven, while another main target,
Rori Donaghy Rori Donaghy is a Public Policy Manager at Meta. He was previously a news editor with the Middle East Eye and was the Director of the Emirates Centre for Human Rights between March 2012 and March 2014, a UK human rights organisation centred on the ...
, was code named "Gyro".Inside the UAE’s secret hacking team of American mercenaries
by Christopher Bing and Joel Schectman, January 30, 2019,
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...
By June 2017, Project Raven had hacked into mobile device of Mansoor’s wife, Nadia, and given her the code name "Purple Egret".


Second arrest

Mansoor was detained again in March 2017, accused of using social media platforms to "publish false and misleading information". UN human rights experts considered his arrest and imprisonment "a direct attack on the legitimate work of human rights defenders in the UAE". In March 2018, after over a year of detention, much of it in
solitary confinement Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...
, he was sentenced to ten years in prison and fined 1,000,000 Emirati dirham. In April 2019, the
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...
raised concerns over Mansoor’s deteriorating health due to his hunger strike, which he started a month back to protest against his unjust imprisonment. The organization called for his urgent release. In June 2021, The Gulf Center for Human Rights accuses, through a complaint made in France's courts,
Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi (also romanised as Ahmed Nasser Al-Raisi) is an Emirati military general officer. He currently serves as the 30th president of Interpol and the inspector general of the United Arab Emirates' interior ministry. Early career ...
of being responsible of Mansoor's torture. In July 2021,
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...
and
Gulf Center for Human Rights The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) is an independent non-profit charity that defends human rights in the Persian Gulf and neighbouring states that include, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, UAE, Oman, Iran, Qatar, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, an ...
raised grave concerns over the well-being of Mansoor, after his private letter detailing his mistreatment in detention and flagrantly unfair trial was published by a London-based Arabic news site. The letter revealed that since his detention in 2017, Mansoor was being held incommunicado, isolated from other prisoners, and without a bed and mattress. The UAE authorities denied him basic necessities and meaningful contact with other prisoners or family members, while keeping him in indefinite solitary confinement. In July 2021, Mansoor was again confirmed to be one of the persons of interest of the
Pegasus software Pegasus Software is based in Kettering, England and develops accounting and financial management, supply chain, business intelligence, payroll, crm, construction and service management software applications for small and medium-sized businesses. ...
, used by UAE to spy on given targets. On 17 September 2021, the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
legislators urged the United Arab Emirates for an immediate and unconditional release of Ahmed Mansoor and other human rights activists. In a strongly-worded resolution, the EU stated that the Emirati authorities “violated Ahmed Mansoor’s rights for more than 10 years with arbitrary arrest and detention, death threats, physical assault, government surveillance and inhumane treatment in custody”.


Prizes

* In 2015, Mansoor received the
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, sometimes called "the Nobel Prize for human rights", is an annual prize for human rights defenders. It was created in 1993 to honour and protect individuals around the world who demonstrate excep ...
.


See also

*
DarkMatter (Emirati company) DarkMatter Group is a computer security company founded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2014 or 2015. The company describes itself as a purely defensive company, but several whistleblowers have alleged that it is involved in offensive cybe ...
*
Hacking Team HackingTeam was a Milan-based information technology company that sold offensive intrusion and surveillance capabilities to governments, law enforcement agencies and corporations. Its "''Remote Control Systems''" enable governments and corporatio ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansoor, Ahmed Emirati activists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Emirati prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of the United Arab Emirates