Sunday Times: A senior member of the Emirati royal family is...

The beginning of the Sunday Times newspaper and an exclusive report by Christina Lamb and Debeesh Ghadher entitled “The Emirati Minister of Tolerance in the” case Sexual assault “on an employee at Hay Book Festival .

The report says Scotland Yard has interviewed a British woman named Caitlin McNamara, 32, who claims she was the victim of a serious sexual assault by a senior member of the Emirati royal family, Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan, 69, Minister of Tolerance in the UAE government While working on launching Hay Literary Festival in Abu Dhabi. McNamara chose to remain anonymous to tell her story.

The report adds that the attack took place on Valentine’s Day February 14 this year, in a villa on a remote private island, believed to be located in the Crimean resort, where most of the royal family owns real estate, and McNamara thought that the sheikh called her and invited her to dinner in His residence was to discuss preparations for the opening of Hay Festival Abu Dhabi. The sheikh denied any wrongdoing and said at the end of this week that he was “surprised and saddened” by the allegations.

While the High Festival supports freedom of expression, human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized the Gulf state’s dealings with dissidents .

“There is an old debate about whether it is better to have a platform in countries like this or take a stand through a boycott,” McNamara said. “I got my university degree in Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Sous,” she continues After studying international relations at the University of Sussex, and majoring in cultural diplomacy, I truly believe in dialogue and participation.

The lengthy report clarifies that McNamara thought that this would be an opportunity to speak with the sheikh, who is nicknamed “Sheikh of the Heart,” about the case of Ahmed Mansour, the well-known poet, who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for publishing posts on social media that “undermine the status and reputation of the UAE.” Being a defender of human rights issues close to her heart.

“I felt scared, I was alone on this island in a concrete building with this strong man who controls every aspect of my life there, my flights, my visa. I know these are people you can’t get angry with, I’ve spent enough time,” McNamara said while recounting what happened. There is to know its power and impact in a country where every day you hear stories about people who disappeared in the desert. “

She added a statement detailing what happened the night of the alleged assault.

McNamara, who left for Oman on February 23 (two days before the launch of the exhibition, which she spent 6 months preparing for), asserts that the British embassy in the Emirates advised her, after the accident, to leave immediately and not to inform the Emirati police for her safety, but the British Foreign Office report He says that the embassy did not advise McNamara what to do first, but the embassy made it clear to her that “it would be very difficult (if not impossible) to file a case with the police and name Sheikh Nahyan as an aggressor. She would also face the same problem in obtaining any kind of Legal representation. ”

“The authority and influence of this man extends to large parts of the world, including this country,” says McNamara. Therefore, the police put her home under surveillance and provided him with alarms, fearing for her safety and security. She adds that she is determined to bring the sheikh to stand trial, which is being undertaken by Baroness Kennedy with a team of prominent lawyers in London to represent McNamara for free and to begin to consider whether they can sue Nahyan in Britain.

For the same reason, “I feel I have nothing to lose,” McNamara told the Sunday Times. “I do this because I want to highlight the influence of strong men like him in doing things like that and thinking that they can get away with it.” Sheikh Nahyan did not respond to the newspaper’s calls or letters, but the newspaper received a letter from a defamation lawyer in London, Shillings, stating, “Our clients are surprised and saddened by this allegation that arrives eight months after the alleged incident and through a national newspaper. This testimony is rejected.”

For their part, the festival’s directors pledged last night not to return to the Gulf kingdom again as long as Sheikh Nahyan remains in his position. The festival’s chairman, Caroline Michel, described the attack as “a horrific breach of trust and a heinous abuse of the position.”

And to the Financial Times newspaper and a report written by Heba Saleh from Cairo entitled “Trials of sexual crimes in Morocco raise fears of repression of opponents.”

The writer notes that critics warn of Moroccos sliding into tyranny, especially in the presence of a monarchy that gives the king full influence, and suppresses protests and journalists who are being prosecuted for nationality, after nearly 10 years of the uprisings that swept the Arab world.

The trial of a local journalist, according to the author, has raised concerns that the authorities in the kingdom are increasingly abusing the justice system to silence dissent as they backtrack on reforms introduced after the 2011 protests. Activists say prosecutions are being carried out against critics of the regime in particular. King Mohammed VI. Most of them focus on sexual misconduct and the nature of the accusations make it difficult for supporters to defend.

The writer quotes a professor of political science at Hassan I Settat University and former editor of the investigative newspaper, Omar Brouksi, Le Journal, as saying that the result was the silencing of the vibrant press. “The state wants journalists to exercise self-censorship from the moment they decide to write any story, especially if it concerns a sensitive issue like the king,” he added.

In a statement issued at the start of the trial, Human Rights Watch expressed concerns that the authorities were misusing the justice system to silence one of the few remaining critical voices in the Moroccan media. ”This was confirmed by the policy officer at the European Center for Development Policy Management in the Netherlands, Chloe Tiffan. “There was a slight amount of political openness after 2011, but that has changed greatly,” she said.

According to the author, many journalists were forced to leave the country because of their imprisonment, pressure exerted on them by the police, or because they or their relatives were subjected to intimidation. But the Secretary-General of the Moroccan Ministerial Commission for Human Rights (an official body), Abdelkrim Boujradi, confirmed to the Financial Times that no person in the country has been prosecuted for expressing his political views, and that freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary are guaranteed, adding, “Being a journalist does not exempt you from the procedures. Judicial “if it is proven that you violated the law.

“We cannot underestimate Donald Trump“

We conclude with a report on the Independent’s website entitled, “Trump is struggling to maintain the vote of his electorate.

The report says President Donald Trump is making a late-for-reelection proposal to voters on Saturday in Michigan and Wisconsin in the upper Midwest, which was the reason for his 2016 victory, but may now slip from his grip.

Trump is facing headwinds, not only in the national polls that show Democrat Joe Biden’s lead, but also in the polls on the battlefield.

The report shows that Trump is still struggling with his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But on the other hand, Biden’s campaign manager, Jane O’Malley Dillon, warns of feeling complacent, adding, “The truth is that this race is much closer to what some experts might suggest because of what they have suggested on Twitter. If we learn anything from 2016, it is that we don’t.” We can underestimate Donald Trump or his ability to forge his way back into competition in the final days of the campaign, through any distortion or deceitful tactics he has or at his disposal. “

Although Trump maintained his aggressive campaign schedule after contracting the Coronavirus, the difficulty in securing a second term for Trump, according to the report, was evident on Friday when he launched his campaign in Georgia.

And the most recent campaign fundraising numbers from the Trump team indicate that he is possibly the first incumbent president of the modern era to face a financial irregularity in his campaign due to extravagance. Biden has kept expenditures low and has benefited from an influx of more than $ 1 billion in donations over the past three months. This gives him a massive cash advantage, with just over two weeks left before the election.