Two detained for advocating democratic reforms
Published:Monday | April 11, 2011 | 12:00 AM
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP):
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have detained two more activists advocating democratic reforms in the oil-rich Gulf nation where most political activity is banned, a lawyer said yesterday.
The pair includes one of the country's most outspoken academics, Nasser bin Ghaith, who is a financial analyst and an economics professor at the Abu Dhabi branch of Paris' Sorbonne university.
He was detained yesterday in Dubai, said Mohammed al-Mansouri, the lawyer and a fellow activist.
criticised for rulership
He has frequently criticised the Gulf region's ruling sheiks for refusing to consider all but the most limited of political reforms and for failing to provide a legal framework for the staggering economic development of the past decade.
The other activist, Fahad Salem al-Shehhy, was detained late Saturday in Ajman, another of the federation's emirates north of Dubai, al-Mansouri said. Al-Shehhy has been participating in an online forum calling for free elections and other democratic reforms in the UAE, an alliance of seven sheikdoms run by ruling families.
The forum had been led by Ahmed Mansour, a blogger and human-rights activist, who himself was arrested on Friday in Dubai after he signed a petition in favour of an elected parliament.