By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 4 February 2016:
Human Rights Watch has protested that the lawyers for four Libyans accused by the UAE . . .[restrict]prosecutor of Muslim Brotherhood links, have not been given the evidence against their clients, whose trial is due to start on 15 February.
HRW claims that Salim Alaradi, a Libyan who also holds a Canadian passport, Isa Al-Manna and father and son Kamal and Mohamed Elderat who both hold dual Libyan-US nationality were tortured after they were detained by the UAE authorities in August 2014. The men have also had no access to lawyers. Alaradi claimed on 19 January that he still had not been able to see his Emirate lawyer, who in turn had not been shown the prosecution evidence and could therefore not prepare a defence.
The day before, at a pretrial hearing, said HRW, Alaradi had shown the judge marks on his arms which he said had been caused by torture. The judge declined to take up the allegations but said that they could be dealt with at the main trial in the Federal Supreme Court.
The men have been charged under anti-terrorism legislation with providing material support to and cooperating with Libya Dawn and the 17th February Brigade in Benghazi, both of which, said HRW, are deemed by the UAE to be terrorist organisations. All four men deny the charges.
The pretrial hearing was attended by US and Canadian diplomats. [/restrict]
