The Sharjah Sharia criminal Court decided on the 4th of March 2009, to replace the execution sentence which imposed on Hassan al-Diqqi on the 30th of June 2006, to a 10 years imprisonment. The state authorities had previously offered to release him if he gave up his human rights work. He refused this offer.

Further information

In June 2005 the authorities accused Hassan al-Diqqi, the founder of the unrecognised Emirates People's Rights Organisation, of raping a housekeeper.

The charges aroused suspicion, coming two months after al-Diqqi established the "PRO Emirates" website. al-Diqqi went into hiding and was sentenced to death in absentia in a 2005 trial in which forensic evidence did not support the charge, according to a local rights activist and lawyer who saw the evidence.

The Sharjah police arrested al-Diqqi in July 2008 on the old rape charge. On August 5 a court ordered his release, and the next day an appeals court affirmed the release order, but then without explanation the first instance court rescinded its initial release decision.

Al-Diqqi says the authorities are harassing him because of his human rights activism.