UAE pardons Bangladeshis jailed for protesting against ousted leader Sheikh Hasina
The United Arab Emirates has pardoned 57 Bangladeshis who were convicted of holding unauthorised protests in the country.
Emirati authorities handed those detained lengthy prison sentences after they staged a protest against ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Abu Dhabi's WAM news agency reported on Tuesday that the UAE's President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan cancelled the sentences and planned to deport the group from the country.
WAM said Bin Zayed had "ordered the pardon for the Bangladeshi nationals involved in last month's protest and disturbances across several emirates".
The pardon comes less than a week after Nahyan called Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser to the interim government in Bangladesh, to congratulate him on his appointment after Hasina fled the country.
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Yunus also confirmed that the UAE had pardoned the Bangladeshis during a press conference in Dhaka.
After his appointment following Hasina's fall, the de facto leader of Bangladesh instructed its foreign ministry to lobby for the release of its detained citizens in the UAE.
The Bangladeshi embassy in the UAE then instructed its legal counsels to work on securing the release of the men.
In July, the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal sentenced the 57 in an expedited trial after they staged a rare protest against Hasina in the UAE.
Prosecutors accused the Bangladeshi nationals of "crimes of gathering in a public place and protesting against their home government with the intent to incite unrest".
Three Bangladeshi citizens were sentenced to life in prison, while 53 were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
One citizen, who state media said entered the UAE illegally and "participated in the riot", was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The protests, which took place on 22 July in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, were in response to Hasina's crackdown on student-led protests.
Demonstrators were protesting against a Bangladesh High Court verdict that was set to reintroduce a quota system where 30 percent of government jobs were reserved for descendants of those who fought in the country's independence war in 1971.
Mass protests against the quota system, led by students who believed the move to be anti-meritocratic, were violently put down by authorities in Bangladesh
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