A former official of the "Human Rights Watch" human rights organization confirmed the accusations made against the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed, about his seeking through an intermediary to bribe the organization with two million dollars, but she said that she did not know that he was behind it.
This came in a series of tweets published on Tuesday by Sarah Whitson, the former Middle East Director of the organization, commenting on an investigation published by the US agency "Bloomberg" on Monday, which brought financial and human rights charges to bin Zayed.
The US agency's investigation revealed "the conspiracy of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi against Qatar through the Havilland Bank in Luxembourg, and the use of the bank in suspicious funds to cover up the violations of the UAE."
"The bribery came through the former president of Bank of Havilland, Graham Robson, in an attempt by Bin Zayed to woo the organization to turn a blind eye to human rights violations committed by the UAE authorities," Whitson said.
She added, "Bin Zayed sent his followers to infiltrate Human Rights Watch (referring to Robson) because of our relentless reports on the UAE's human rights violations."
No surprise #UAE @MohamedBinZayed sent his minions to try to infiltrate @hrw given our relentless reports on country's abuses.
Total failure ofc.
We were able to use the $ 2m we had no idea was secretly coming from him to do great work on the gulf!
https://t.co/tQh40O1u6r
- Sarah Leah Whitson (@ sarahleah1) December 21, 2020
Was distressing to learn that minion Robeson, falsely presented himself as head of a “foundation”, looked me in eye to express his wish for reform in the region, breaching his legal fiduciary duties and duties of trust as a board member.
- Sarah Leah Whitson (@ sarahleah1) December 21, 2020
"We used the two million dollars in a good job to uncover the violations in the Gulf, and we had no idea that it was secretly coming from the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi," she added. However, she did not reveal how and when the organization knew the relationship between the bank's president and bin Zayed.
Whitson asked "how many organizations bin Zayed tried to infiltrate through his followers."
According to a Bloomberg investigation, Robson gave Human Rights Watch $ 2 million after the organization criticized the UAE in 2011 for its arrest and harassment of activists, including Ahmed Mansour, one of its members during the Arab Spring.
The investigation also clarified that "the bribery was to help place the bank’s president at the time on the Human Rights Watch board of directors after the organization published reports on the poor human rights conditions in the UAE and the authorities’ crackdown on dissidents. "
While there was no immediate comment from Abu Dhabi regarding these accusations.