A member of the UAE royal family is accused of torture – but is there any chance of justice when the country's rulers are the law?
Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 April 2009
(Left) Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother to the President of the UAE and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
".......A 45-minute video released last week purports to show what happened next: Mr Poor was dragged off into the desert and brutally tortured. In the words of Human Rights Watch, the tape provides overwhelming evidence that Sheikh Issa, together with members of the Emirates police:
• Fired bullets from an automatic rifle around Mr Poor in very close proximity as the victim was screaming;
• Used an electric cattle prod against Mr Poor's testicles and inserted it into his anus;
• Poured lighter fluid on Mr Poor's testicles and set them on fire;
• Pulled down the pants of Mr Poor and repeatedly struck him with a protruding nail attached to a wooden board. At one point, Sheikh [Issa] placed the nail next to Mr Poor's buttocks and banged it through the flesh;
• Whipped Mr Poor over all his body including his face;
• Poured a large container of salt on to Mr Poor's wounds which were still bleeding ;
• Positioned Mr Poor on the desert sand and then drove over him repeatedly in a 4x4 vehicle. The sound of what appears to be breaking bones can be heard on the tape.....
The interior ministry in the Emirates, which is headed by another of Sheikh Issa's brothers, does not deny that the incident took place but says the matter has now been sorted out "privately" between the sheikh and Mr Poor – as if it were merely some playground quarrel.........
One of the hallmarks of a patrimonial system is that government posts tend to be filled according to who people are, rather than their capacity to do the job: the holder of the office is often more important than the office itself. How this works in the UAE, where the Maktum and the Nayhan families rule the roost, can be seen from the list of senior government posts. Between them, the two families have carved up the positions of president, vice-president, prime minister and nine of the 24 other ministerial posts, including the key ministries of defence, finance, interior and foreign affairs. It's a similar picture in Kuwait with the Sabah family, in Qatar with the Thani family, in Bahrain with the Khalifa family and, of course, in Saudi Arabia with the heirs of Ibn Saud.
Another hallmark of patrimonial systems is that "the ruler does not distinguish between personal and public patrimony and treats matters and resources of state as his personal affair". The line between the state and its rulers, between the state's property and the rulers' property, becomes so blurred as to be almost indistinguishable: the rulers are not merely above the law, they are the law......"
Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 April 2009
(Left) Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother to the President of the UAE and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
".......A 45-minute video released last week purports to show what happened next: Mr Poor was dragged off into the desert and brutally tortured. In the words of Human Rights Watch, the tape provides overwhelming evidence that Sheikh Issa, together with members of the Emirates police:
• Fired bullets from an automatic rifle around Mr Poor in very close proximity as the victim was screaming;
• Used an electric cattle prod against Mr Poor's testicles and inserted it into his anus;
• Poured lighter fluid on Mr Poor's testicles and set them on fire;
• Pulled down the pants of Mr Poor and repeatedly struck him with a protruding nail attached to a wooden board. At one point, Sheikh [Issa] placed the nail next to Mr Poor's buttocks and banged it through the flesh;
• Whipped Mr Poor over all his body including his face;
• Poured a large container of salt on to Mr Poor's wounds which were still bleeding ;
• Positioned Mr Poor on the desert sand and then drove over him repeatedly in a 4x4 vehicle. The sound of what appears to be breaking bones can be heard on the tape.....
The interior ministry in the Emirates, which is headed by another of Sheikh Issa's brothers, does not deny that the incident took place but says the matter has now been sorted out "privately" between the sheikh and Mr Poor – as if it were merely some playground quarrel.........
One of the hallmarks of a patrimonial system is that government posts tend to be filled according to who people are, rather than their capacity to do the job: the holder of the office is often more important than the office itself. How this works in the UAE, where the Maktum and the Nayhan families rule the roost, can be seen from the list of senior government posts. Between them, the two families have carved up the positions of president, vice-president, prime minister and nine of the 24 other ministerial posts, including the key ministries of defence, finance, interior and foreign affairs. It's a similar picture in Kuwait with the Sabah family, in Qatar with the Thani family, in Bahrain with the Khalifa family and, of course, in Saudi Arabia with the heirs of Ibn Saud.
Another hallmark of patrimonial systems is that "the ruler does not distinguish between personal and public patrimony and treats matters and resources of state as his personal affair". The line between the state and its rulers, between the state's property and the rulers' property, becomes so blurred as to be almost indistinguishable: the rulers are not merely above the law, they are the law......"
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