UAE President pardons bloggers; but misses a golden opportunity to lead his society forward.

The United Arab Emirates president on Monday pardoned five activists sentenced a day earlier to 2 to 3 years in prison on charges of publicly insulting the country's rulers and disrupting public order, one of their lawyers said, relieving them of multiyear prison terms and closing a case controversial in the oil-rich Gulf state.



The U.A.E. government said Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan ordered the release of the prisoners as part of a wider pardon issued on Sunday on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the U.A.E. Defense lawyers and the activists' families had anticipated the amnesty ahead of U.A.E. national day on Friday, when the president has in the past pardoned some prisoners.


"I am very happy and glad," said Mohammed al-Roken, an attorney for two of the activists. "I hope this is a page that has been turned in the history of the U.A.E., and they can continue to serve their country."

Civil-society and human-rights groups criticized the case—an unusual trial in a state-security court of well-respected Emirati writers, professors, and bloggers—saying the accused were unable to present a proper defense and arguing that the trial served principally as a warning against political expression, at a time when protests are sweeping the wider Middle East region. Within the U.A.E., the trial divided opinions on political participation and freedom of expression. Some of the activists and their lawyers complained of harassment and threats.

Where Freedom of Speech is denied; the seeds of revolution are sown...