UAE Twitter activist not guilty but still in custody
Despite being acquitted of the charges against him, Obaid Yousef al-Zaabi remains in custody since December 2013 after being interviewed on CNN about his Twitter activism.
An Emirati who was arrested after criticizing the lack of free speech in his country in an interview with CNN has been acquitted of the charges against him, but is still being held by the enigmatic security forces of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Obaid Yousef al-Zaabi was arrested Dec. 12, 2013, after speaking to CNN about his earlier arrest for tweets that criticized the authoritarian government.
“I will continue forever to defend human rights and the rights and dignity of our people, our freedoms and our political rights,” Zaabi told CNN. “I’ll do this in order to guarantee a better future for our people and the coming generations so that they can be in a situation in which these freedoms are set in stone.”
The day after the interview aired, Zaabi disappeared, presumably at the hands of the security forces. CNN’s Sara Sidner, who interviewed Zaabi in December, declined to comment on the case.
