UN urges UAE to release terminally ill prisoner

By Bayram Altug</p> <p>GENEVA (AA) – The UN on Tuesday called on the United Arab Emirates to release a terminally ill prisoner so she could &quot;live her final days in dignity.&quot;</p> <p>Human rights experts led by Dainius Puras, the UN special rapporteur on health, issued a joint statement condemning Alia Abdulnoor's imprisonment.</p> <p>The statement said Abdulnoor had helped campaigns to raise money for women and children in need in war-ravaged Syria before being arrested on charges of terrorist financing in 2015.</p> <p>The statement stressed that her breast cancer had reached its final stage, spreading to vital organs, necessitating her transfer to a hospital.</p> <p>“We would like to remind the United Arab Emirates that torture and ill-treatment is universally and absolutely prohibited and that any statement made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence,” the experts said.</p> <p>“We call on the authorities to release Ms. Abdulnour and to allow her to live her last days of life in dignity and with her family at home,” they added.