UAE leader pardons 57 Bangladeshis imprisoned for rallying in the Arab nation over turmoil back home

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UAE leader pardons 57 Bangladeshis imprisoned for rallying in the Arab nation over turmoil back home

2024-09-03 16:38 Last Updated At：16:40

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The leader of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday pardoned 57 Bangladeshi nationals convicted in rapid trials over their involvement in protests in the Arabian Peninsula nation about unrest in their home country.

The decision by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, came after he held a telephone call last week with Bangladesh's interim prime minister, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Yunus took over Bangladesh after demonstrators drove longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee the country.

The arrests in the UAE underlined the strict laws criminalizing speech and public protest in this Gulf Arab country that is home to the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The Emirates' state-run WAM news agency gave no figure for the number of Bangladeshis pardoned, but said it involved those who took part in “protests and disturbances across several emirates” in July.

“The decision includes cancelling the sentences of those convicted and arranging for their deportation,” WAM said.

In Bangladesh, the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency quoted an adviser to Yunus as saying that all 57 Bangladeshis arrested and tried would be coming back to the country soon.

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in July gave 10-year prison sentences to 53 Bangladeshi nationals and an 11-year term to another Bangladeshi national. Three others received sentences of life in prison in the Emirates, an autocratically ruled federation of seven sheikhdoms.

Prosecutors accused the men of “gathering in a public place and protesting against their home government with the intent to incite unrest,” obstructing law enforcement, causing harm to others and damaging property.

Human Rights Watch instead described the men as being “arbitrarily detained, convicted and sentenced to long prison terms ... based on their participation in peaceful demonstrations.”

The protests in the UAE followed weeks of demonstrations in Bangladesh by people upset about a quota system that reserved up to 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. The country’s top court in late July scaled back the controversial system.

Hasina, who had governed the country for 15 years, then resigned and fled Bangladesh on Aug. 5 as the protests intensified.

The weeks of violent protests and Hasina’s crackdown killed more than 600 people, according to United Nations' estimates.

In the UAE, broad laws tightly restrict speech and nearly all major local media are either state-owned or state-affiliated outlets. Laws also criminalize the very few protests that take place by foreign laborers.

The Emirates’ overall population of more than 9.2 million people is only 10% Emirati. The rest are expatriates, many of them low-paid laborers seeking to send money back home to their families. Estimates suggest Bangladeshis are the UAE's third-largest expatriate community, trailing only Indians and Pakistanis.

Rising floodwaters trigger evacuations in Czech Republic and Poland

2024-09-15 20:09 Last Updated At：20:10

PRAGUE (AP) — Another night of torrential rains pounding Central Europe forced massive evacuations in the hardest hit areas in the Czech Republic, where floods reached extreme levels on Sunday.

Meteorologists have warned the situation still might get worse as waters in most rivers are rising, the flood wave made its way through the country and more heavy rains could return overnight.

Authorities declared the highest flood warnings in almost 90 places across the country and in two northeastern regions that recorded the biggest rainfall in recent days, including the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.

In the city of Opava, up to 10,000 people out of a population of some 56,000 have been asked to leave their homes for higher ground. Rescuers used boats to transport people to safety in a neighborhood flooded by the raging Opava River.

“There’s no reason to wait,” Mayor Tomáš Navrátil told the Czech public radio. He said the situation was worse than during the last devastating floods in 1997, known as the “flood of the century.”

“We have to focus on saving lives,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala told the Czech public television Sunday. His government was to possibly meet Monday to assess the damages.

Thousands of others also were evacuated in the towns of Krnov and Cesky Tesin. The Oder River that flows to Poland was expected to reach extreme levels in the city of Ostrava and later in Bohumin.

Towns and villages in the Jeseniky mountains, including the local center of Jesenik, were inundated and isolated by raging waters that turned roads into rivers. The military sent a helicopter to help with evacuations.

Four people who were swept away by waters were missing, police said.

About 260,000 households were without power Sunday morning in the entire country while traffic was halted on many roads, including the major D1 highway.

A firefighter died after “slipping on stairs” while pumping out a flooded basement in the town of Tulln, the head of the fire department of Lower Austria Dietmar Fahrafellner told reporters on Sunday.

Authorities declared the entire state of Lower Austria a disaster zone. The situation remains tense, especially at the water reservoir of Ottenstein, which is expected to reach its maximum capacity on Sunday.

Romanian authorities said Sunday that another person had died in the hard-hit eastern county of Galati after four were reported dead there a day before following unprecedented rain.

In Poland, one person was presumed dead in floods in the southwest, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday.

Tusk said the situation was “dramatic” around the town of Klodzko, with some 25,000 residents, located in a valley in the Sudetes mountains near the border with the Czech Republic.

In Glucholazy, rising waters overflowed a river embankment and flooded streets and houses. Mayor Paweł Szymkowicz said, “we are drowning” and appealed to residents to evacuate to high ground.

Energy supplies and communications were cut off in some flooded areas and regions may resort to using the satellite-based Starlink service, Tusk said.

Several Central European nations have been hit by severe flooding, including Romania, Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, as a result of a low-pressure system from northern Italy dumping heavy rainfall in the wide region.

The weather change arrived following a hot start to September in the region. Scientists have documented Earth’s hottest summer, breaking a record set just a year ago.

A hotter atmosphere, driven by human-caused climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall.

Associated Press writer Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, video journalist Philipp-Moritz Jenne in Vienna and Stephen McGrath in Bucharest, Romania, contributed to this report.

UAE leader pardons 57 Bangladeshis imprisoned for rallying in the Arab nation over turmoil back home

News

UAE leader pardons 57 Bangladeshis imprisoned for rallying in the Arab nation over turmoil back home

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