10 Lebanese detained in UAE return home

Lebanese citizens detained in the United Arab Emirates have recently been released, Lebanon’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.

“The Lebanese ambassador to the UAE notified the ministry of the release of 10 Lebanese detainees who were arrested there about two months ago,” the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this month, a Lebanese man, who was recently detained in the UAE on unknown charges, died.

A committee led by the families of the detained citizens said in a statement that Ghazi Ezzeddin “died as a result of torture,” with human rights groups expressing concern about the UAE government’s “lack of transparency” and detention-related issues in Ezzeddin’s case ,abc reports.

UAE authorities have not yet commented on the case or the release of other detainees.

According to Afif Shouman, who also has relatives detained in the Gulf state, “seven Lebanese citizens are still detained in the UAE and no one has been found guilty.”

Authorities in the UAE have previously detained many Lebanese for their “alleged links” to the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah – which the UAE, like other GCC members – considers a terrorist organisation.

In 2019, the UAE sentenced a Lebanese national to life in prison and two others to 10 years in prison for ties to Hezbollah.

The men’s trials at the time “failed to meet international fair trial standards” because the evidence included “confessions extracted under duress, the defendants were held in solitary confinement for months and denied access to lawyers during interrogations and investigations,” said Amnesty International in a statement. in a statement.