UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – A member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family was found innocent yesterday of the torture and rape of an Afghan in a case that embarrassed the Gulf Arab emirate and raised questions over human rights.
The judge reading the verdict at a court in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s third-largest oil exporter and a US ally, did not give a reason why Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan was exonerated of responsibility for abuse shown in a video first made public on US network ABC last year.
ABC identified one of the people taking part in the abuse as Sheikh Issa.
But a lawyer for the sheikh, a son of UAE founder Sheikh Zayed, said his client was found to have “diminished liability” because two former business associates had drugged him and then taken the video to extort money from him. – (Reuters)