PARIS: A rights group filed a lawsuit against Abu Dhabi Crown PrinceMohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan during his visit to France on Wednesday,accusing him of war crimes, complicity in torture and inhumane treatment inYemen, a lawyer for the group said.
The complaint by the International Alliance for the Defence of Rights andFreedoms (AIDL) said Prince Mohammed, who is Deputy Supreme Commander ofthe UAE Armed Forces, is responsible for attacks that hit civilians.
“It’s in this capacity that he has ordered bombings on Yemeni territory,”said complaint filed on behalf of the AIDL, which is based in France.
There was no immediate response from the Crown Prince’s court or the UAEgovernment media office to an emailed request for comment.
Diplomatic efforts to halt the war in Yemen have proved unsuccessful andattempts by rights group’s to hold the war’s protagonists to account havegained little international traction so far.
The complaint, filed in a Paris court, comes as pressure grows on FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron to curb arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE,which head a coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels who controlmost of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa.
France also has a military base in Abu Dhabi.
A number of Yemenis have joined the legal action, AIDL lawyer Joseph Brehamsaid.
Prince Mohammed, a close ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, isdue to have lunch with Macron on Wednesday.
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French prosecutors are already studying a similar complaint filed in Aprilagainst the Saudi crown prince, starting a legal process likely to lastyears.
The complaint against Abu Dhabi’s crown prince cites a report by UN expertsthat said coalition attacks may have constituted war crimes and thattorture was carried out in two centres controlled by Emirati forces.
The complaint makes reference to the bombing of a building in Sanaa inOctober, 2016, where a wake was taking place for the father of the Houthiadministration’s interior minister.
The Yemen war has killed more than 10,000 people and forced from theirhomes more than 3 million – more than 10 per cent of the population.
Documents from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam onarbitrary detentions and the use of illegal cluster bombs are alsoreferenced in the complaint.
The lawyers said French courts were competent to handle the case in linewith the United Nations convention against torture. – APP/AFP
