UAE ruling family member pleads not guilty to torture

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The trial, the first of a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, follows US network ABC’s airing in May of footage that seemed to show Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan abusing Mohammed Shahpoor, an Afghan grain merchant.

The man is struck with an electric cattle prod, beaten with whips and a plank of wood with a nail in it and driven over by a car at a desert location near the oasis of Al Ain in 2004.

The incident embarrassed the UAE, the world’s third-largest oil exporter, at a time when it was trying to improve its rights image after criticism from its top Western ally, the United States, and rights groups in recent years.

Abu Dhabi prosecutors subsequently detained Sheikh Issa, a son of the late UAE founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, but news only emerged last week that a trial had begun two months ago.

Yesterday was Sheikh Issa’s first day in court as the defence began its case.

Dressed in a traditional white dishdasha, a smiling Sheikh Issa appeared for the two-hour session in Al Ain with

 

 

 

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