Abu Dhabi and Dubai Blog

The murder was straight out of a cheap spy thriller. At least 11 professional assassins, some wearing wigs and fake beards, tracked a senior Hamas official to his Dubai hotel in January and killed him with cold precision, fleeing the country afterward on European passports, the Dubai police say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/world/middleeast/17dubai.html

Details continued to emerge yesterday on the assassination of senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last week. Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan told local reporters yesterday at least seven people with European passports were involved. He did not name the specific countries of the passports, but said the Dubai police approached the nations for information on these individuals.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146622.html

The financial crisis and now two criminal cases that have generated critical headlines in other countries have demonstrated that the emirates remain an absolute monarchy, where institutions are far less important than royalty and where the law is particularly capricious — applied differently based on social standing, religion and nationality, political experts and human rights advocates said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/world/middleeast/22uae.html

Dubai authorities on June 19 banned demonstrations by Iranian immigrants who have been protesting for four days in the Arab emirate against the presidential election results in Iran, Gulf News reported.

“We don’t want the power struggle between the two conflicting parties to be fought over here,” the newspaper quoted Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim as saying.

http://finchannel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40588&Itemid=13

As former Chechen-Russian military commander is gunned down in Dubai, there is speculation on the possible role of the current Chechen president, implicated in a series of targeted killings of political enemies.

Sulim Yamadayev, 35, an ethnic Chechen who was a holder of the Hero of Russia medal, was shot three times in an underground garage in Dubai on Saturday, police said. It is thought he died from his wounds after falling into a coma. Yamadayev is the latest in a series of foes of Ramzan Kadyrov, the 32-year-old rebel-turned-president of Chechnya, to be murdered in recent years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/30/former-russian-commander-assassinated

The UAE has proposed setting up of a commission to investigate the “war crimes” committed by Israel against civilians in Gaza and has asked the international community to “exert the maximum possible pressure” to bring the violence to an end.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/10161550.htm

As Israel continued its bombardments in Gaza, a large number of protesters took to the streets in simultaneous protests all across the emirates, shouting slogans and, raising banners and placards depicting the innocent victims, mainly children.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2009/January/theuae_January178.xml&section=theuae&col=

A wife of Dubai’s ruler condemned Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip and called on Thursday for urgent humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Palestinian area.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=833178&lang=eng_news

DUBAI – The United Arab Emirates cabinet on Monday condemned the Israeli attacks on the battered Gaza Strip, the WAM news agency said in a statement.

The cabinet, headed by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, prime minster and ruler of Dubai, expressed its solidarity with the Palestinian people and sympathy with “victims of the Israeli aggression that has killed hundreds of innocent women and children,” the statement said.

“The cabinet condemns Israel’s aggressive attack on the Gaza Strip, which is an outrageous violation of international law,” according to the statement, issued after a cabinet meeting.

The cabinet supports ongoing international and Arab efforts to broker a ceasefire.

At least 523 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,500 others wounded since Israel unleashed its “Operation Cast Lead” 10 days ago against the densely populated Gaza Strip.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/gaza/2009/January/gaza_January79.xml&section=gaza