Rights group urges UK to probe UAE activist’s death near London

DAWN advocacy group urges UK police ‘to ensure that no foul play was involved’ in the car crash of Alaa al-Siddiq.

A US-based advocacy group, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), has called on United Kingdom authorities to investigate the circumstances of a prominent Emirati dissident’s death in a car crash near London. Alaa al-Siddiq, 33, executive director of the UK-based ALQST, a non-profit organisation that advocates greater freedoms and human rights in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the wider Gulf region, died in an automobile collision in Oxfordshire on Saturday. “UK police should ensure that no foul play was involved in the death … in light of the fact that the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have violently targeted activists in the UK and around the world,” DAWN said in a statement on Sunday.