UN urges UAE to release terminally ill prisoner

By Bayram Altug

GENEVA (AA) - The UN on Tuesday called on the United Arab Emirates to release a terminally ill prisoner so she could "live her final days in dignity."

Human rights experts led by Dainius Puras, the UN special rapporteur on health, issued a joint statement condemning Alia Abdulnoor's imprisonment.

The statement said Abdulnoor had helped campaigns to raise money for women and children in need in war-ravaged Syria before being arrested on charges of terrorist financing in 2015.

The statement stressed that her breast cancer had reached its final stage, spreading to vital organs, necessitating her transfer to a hospital.

“We would like to remind the United Arab Emirates that torture and ill-treatment is universally and absolutely prohibited and that any statement made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence,” the experts said.

“We call on the authorities to release Ms. Abdulnour and to allow her to live her last days of life in dignity and with her family at home,” they added.