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Eugene

(61,595 posts)
Tue Jan 19, 2016, 06:30 PM Jan 2016

US, Canadian and Libyan businessmen charged in UAE after 500 days in jail

Source: The Guardian

US, Canadian and Libyan businessmen charged in UAE after 500 days in jail

Detainees, arrested in 2014 amid accusations of supporting terrorism, were
allegedly tortured while held without charges in United Arab Emirates


Alan Yuhas in New York
Tuesday 19 January 2016 18.17 GMT

A Canadian, two Americans and a Libyan who had been held for more than 500 days without charges and allegedly tortured were charged in the United Arab Emirates on Monday with supporting terrorism.

Canadian Libyan Salim Alaradi was one of the four Libyan nationals charged with supporting two pro-Islamist Libyan militias. Alaradi was arrested in the middle of the night nearly three months earlier, pulled from a Dubai hotel where he, his wife and children were staying on a trip to see extended family.

A father and son, the Libyan American dual citizens Kamal and Mohammed al-Darat were arrested that same month. Like Alaradi, they have been charged with supporting terrorism. Canadian and US officials attended the hearing but their respective embassies did not respond to requests for comment.

The four detainees, all businessmen, have denied that they ever supported the two militias, the Libyan Dawn and the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, which formed during the 2011 revolution. The latter sided with the post-revolution government, but both pro-Islamist groups have splintered in the wake of Libya’s increasingly fractious civil war.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/19/us-canadian-libyan-businessmen-charged-united-arab-emirates-torture-terrorism-accusations
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