Rights Group Asks UN to Probe Death of Emirati Poet Habib al-Sayegh

The United Nations should investigate the 2019 death of Habib al-Sayegh, an award-winning Emirati poet and writer, according to a letter sent to three UN special rapporteurs on Thursday. The US-based rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) argues the circumstances of his death were suspicious and require independent scrutiny.

The call for action follows the publication of Princes and Thieves by Matthew Cole. The book states that al-Sayegh, then 64, was kidnapped from his home in the United Arab Emirates and taken to a prison. It alleges interrogators tortured him before he died between August 16 and 19, 2019.

The book describes specific injuries, including teeth pulled with pliers and repeated strikes with a sharp metal object. Dawn noted that such injuries leave marks detectable by a forensic examination of remains. The group stated that only an independent investigation can answer the questions surrounding his fate.

Raed Jarrar, the advocacy director for Dawn, requested specific documents in the letter. He asked the UN to press the UAE for al-Sayegh’s death certificate, recorded cause of death, and detention records. Jarrar also sought permission for the family and an independent forensic expert to confirm the location and condition of his grave.

Cole’s book claims Emirati officials held the body for more than a day and barred the family from viewing it. The body was later moved from a cemetery in Abu Dhabi to an unmarked desert grave. This prevented the family from praying at the original burial site.

Al-Sayegh served as chairman of the Emirates Writers and Writers Union and secretary-general of the General Union of Arab Writers. He was also editor-in-chief of the newspaper Al Khaleej. In a column published on August 11, 2019, he described Israel as a real and natural enemy and questioned who authorized normalizers to speak on behalf of everyone.

The state news agency announced his death nine days after that column appeared without revealing a cause. The UAE officially normalized relations with Israel at a White House ceremony during Donald Trump's first term. Since then, Abu Dhabi and Israel have deepened their ties. A year before al-Sayegh died, Dawn was founded by Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Despite a documented pattern of disappearing dissidents, the UAE is a party to the Convention against Torture, Jarrar noted.