Member of UAE ruling family on trial over videotaped beating acquitted of all charges

Abu Dhabi sheik in torture trial acquitted

AL AIN, United Arab Emirates — A member of the United Arab Emirates’ ruling family on trial in connection with the videotaped beating of an Afghan man was cleared of all charges Sunday.

Judge Mubarak al-Awad acquitted Sheik Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of all charges in a UAE criminal court in the oasis city of Al Ain. The charges against Issa, a half brother of the country’s president, included endangering a life, causing bodily harm and rape.

A security guard who was seen on the video assisting the sheik with the beating also was acquitted.

It was the first time that a member of the ruling family of this wealthy Gulf Arab nation had been put on trial, but human rights groups were quick to criticize Issa’s acquittal.

The trial began in October, providing a rare public spectacle in the Emirates, where transgressions of the ruling elite are typically dealt with behind closed doors and according to tribal customs.

Issa, who has been in custody for eight months, attended Sunday’s hearing. He wore a traditional white robe and headscarf and was not handcuffed or restrained. On hearing the verdict, he hugged his defense lawyer, Habib al-Mullah, and left the courtroom without speaking to reporters.

Al-Awad, who presided over a three-judge panel, said Issa was innocent since he was in a state of “diminished liability” during the videotaped 2004 incident in Abu Dhabi’s eastern desert.

The judge gave no other explanation for the ruling when he read the court’s verdict.

The tape caused international outrage when it was broadcast by a U.S. television station last year. Since then, it has also appeared on the Internet, showing a suspect, identified as Issa, viciously beating a man said to be an Afghan worker and firing an automatic weapon into the sand around him.

Emirates’ authorities have previously confirmed the man in the videotape was Issa. During the trial, Issa’s lawyer never denied that it was his client on the tape.

The defense also argued that the 40-year-old sheik was not responsible for his actions at the time because he was left disoriented and impaired by a combination of drugs, including medicine for heart and back conditions.

Issa’s lawyers submitted a list of drugs the sheik was taking. The list was never made public, but in December a forensic expert, called by the defense, told the court the mix of drugs Issa had consumed could cause “anger, suicidal tendencies, depression, aggression and loss of memory.”

“We are happy the court ruled in line with our defense and evidence we submitted,” Issa’s lawyer, Habib al-Mullah, told reporters after Sunday’s verdict.

Samer Muscati, a UAE researcher with the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the verdict was shocking given the severity of the beating shown on the videotape.

“Although Sheik Issa’s prosecution is a positive step, a different verdict was expected,” he said.

The victim, identified as Afghan grain dealer Mohammed Shapoor, survived the beatings and attended Sunday’s court session. He left the courtroom immediately after the verdict was announced and his lawyer did not answer calls by The Associated Press seeking comment.

In an earlier hearing, Shapoor told the judge he had dropped all claims against Issa since the two settled the matter out of court. Details of that settlement have not been made public.

The tape surfaced last year in a U.S. lawsuit by Issa’s former business associate and former confidante, Texas businessman Bassam Nabulsi. The defense had alleged Nabulsi filmed the torture in order to blackmail Issa.

Nabulsi has tried to sue Issa in a U.S. court for millions of dollars he claimed he was owed for various business deals.

Shapoor, the Afghan grain dealer, has filed a lawsuit against Nabulsi and his brother, accusing them of filming him without his permission and seeking damages.

On Sunday, the judge convicted in absentia Bassam Nabulsi and his brother Ghassan to 5 years in prison each for administering drugs to Issa, endangering the life of Shapoor and filming without his permission.

The defense claimed Ghassan Nabulsi filmed the 2004 incident, which, according to the defense, occurred while his brother Bassam and the sheik’s former confidant, was in charge of his medication.

The judge also sentenced three other defendants, working on the sheik’s ranch at the time of the incident, to prison sentences for participating in the abuse without giving details of their roles.