1-The story of HRW press conference which was held today in Dubai before the intervention of the State Security to stop it. #uae #hrw

2-The Conference started as usual, like every year, at 11 am. HRW team started talking about the report, which focused this year.

3-on the deterioration of freedom of expression & opinion,repression & arrests of activists & the revocation of their citizenship.

4-and the restrictions on the work of civil society associations and disbanding their elected Boards of Directors.

5-After finishing their talk about the report, HRW team opened the floor for questions.

6-The attendees, including HRW team, noticed the presence of 2 Egyptians and one Sudanese individuals who identified themselves as

7-human rights activists and independent lawyers. The three individuals tried to disturb and sabotage the conference..

8-by attacking the report & the work of the organization with some clamor and worthless comments.The audience knows this technique

9-..very well; the three individuals were sent by the State Security for this purpose.

10-HRW has seen this method before in several countries, and it's of no secrete to media and people either..

11-Al-Jazeera among other media channels and agencies was there.

12-When the three individuals failed to achieve their goals due to weak & superficial arguments, with the floor knowing the game.

13-it seems that they called State Security team that was primed to enter. Four people then entered wearing civilian clothes.

14-They arrived very much at the closing of the Q&A session, asked the members of HRW organization to present a permission for.

15-..for the seminar. HRW members responded, telling them that they did everything that they r aware of to be done for such events.

16-similar to previous years. They provided all the required documents to the hotel as usual and

17-they informed the UAE authorities about the conference as well. They, HRW team, further asked if there is anything further they.

18-...., they were told no!

19-HRW team asked the four individuals to show their IDs, all except one, said they forgot them in their cars.

20-One of them presented an ID issued by the Economic Department, while another said they belong to the "Ministry of the license!".

21-The Security personnel told the organizers and the attendees that they are ending the conference. The conference was ended, but

22-..the press remained in place and held some interviews with the audience.

23-Ironically,Human Rights Watch started the conference by thanking the UAE for allowing them 2 hold the conference in the country

24-indicating that more repressive countries do not allow them to do so,but the intervention of the State Security spoiled it all!

25-when ppl started leaving the place, the 2 Egyptians and the Sudanese were seen with the security personnel behind the building!

26-There was press coverage of this event, and we will soon see the reports coming out.

27-This incident exemplifies the actual reality of the situation in the UAE!

(Reuters) - Human Rights Watch accused the United Arab Emirates of cracking down on freedom of expression, during a news conference on Wednesday which was disrupted by men who claimed to be UAE officials and demanded the rights group end its presentation.

The UAE, which includes the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has avoided the kind of pro-democracy demonstrations that have rocked Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, partly thanks to its cradle-to-grave welfare system.

But it has tolerated little dissent during the regional upheaval, trying and sentencing at least five pro-reform activists and stripping the citizenship of another seven last year on charges that they represent a threat to state security.

It also disbanded the elected boards of two of the UAE's most prominent civil society groups, Human Rights Watch said.

"Unfortunately, we saw last year that the United Arab Emirates decided to suppress freedom of expression in the country by harassing and trying a number of activists, and by attempting to limit freedom of association in the country," HRW'S deputy Middle East head Nadim Houry told the conference.

Subsequently a group of men dressed in traditional Emirati clothing burst into the conference and demanded it end because Human Rights Watch did not have a permit to host such an event.

Attendees heard the men identify themselves as officials of the Ministry of Economy. They flashed an identification card, HRW researcher Samer Muscati, one of the conference's organizers, told Reuters, but they could not see it long enough to determine who had issued it.

"We speculate that these guys are not who they claim to be. They seem to be state security, not from the Ministry of Economy," he said.

Officials of the UAE Interior Ministry and the Dubai government's press office declined to comment on the identity of the men, in response to queries about the incident.

At least three of the Emirati nationals who had their citizenship revoked were present at the conference. They said the government had revoked their citizenship because they were calling for reform and were members of an Islamist organization that had been registered with the government for decades.

The UAE has said the men had originally had the nationality of other countries, and had committed "acts threatening the national security of the UAE," saying some of the men had "connections with suspicious terrorism financing organizations."

"It's ironic that this happened as we were highlighting the issue of freedom of speech," Muscati said. "This incident shows us how much pressure local activists must feel trying to challenge the government on freedom of expression."

The group said it would seek an explanation of the incidents from UAE Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and called on the UAE to cease harassment of activists.

"We know that the UAE government has global ambitions and wants to be a global player," Houry said.

"But at the same time, it cannot achieve that ambition if it's going to detain activists, disband organizations, and arbitrarily take away citizenships."