Mohammed Basheer was arrested from his home in the early hours of Sunday, 15 November, by a heavily armed security force, and detained incommunicado in a security facility for 12 hours before being transferred to the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP). He was questioned, respectively at the National Security Agency without a lawyer and then at the SSSP, about a visit by several diplomats to the offices of EIPR, about their criminal defence work and their publications. These are perfectly legitimate activities for a human rights and legal aid organisation to undertake and do not justify in any way the prosecution’s decision to detain him for 15 days. Nor does it explain the accusations of joining a terrorist organisation, spreading false information, undermining public security – charges that were not supported by any evidence. Continue
