10 Lebanese detained in UAE to return home

Lebanese citizens who were detained in the United Arab Emirates have been released recently, Lebanon’s foreign ministry said Saturday.

"Lebanon’s ambassador to the UAE notified the ministry of the release of 10 Lebanese detainees who had been arrested there about two months ago," the ministry said in a statement.

The release follows the death earlier this month of a Lebanese man who was recently detained in the UAE on unknown charges.

A committee led by the family members of the detained citizens said in a statement that Ghazi Ezzedine had "died under torture", and rights groups raised concerns about the Emirati government’s "lack of transparency" in Ezzedine's case and linked detentions, ABC reported.

Authorities from UAE have yet to comment on the case or on the release of the other detainees.

According to Afif Shouman, who also has relatives detained in the Gulf country,  "Seven Lebanese citizens remain detained in the UAE, none of whom have been convicted of a crime."

Previously, UAE authorities have detained many Lebanese over "alleged links" to the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah — which the UAE, like other Gulf Cooperation Council members — considers a terrorist organisation.

In 2019, the UAE sentenced a Lebanese national to life in prison and two others to 10 years in prison on charges of links to Hezbollah.

At the time the trial of the men “failed to meet international fair trial standards”, as the evidence included confessions that were “extracted under duress, and the defendants were detained incommunicado for months and denied access to lawyers during interrogation and investigation”, said Amnesty International in a statement.