ABU DHABI: The UAE on Tuesday said two Swiss journalists had been “stopped for questioning” after the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi last week but declined to confirm their arrest.
The statement comes after Swiss public broadcaster RTS said two of its journalists, accredited to cover the opening, were arrested on Thursday while shooting images in an outdoor market and held for two days.
The National Media Council, the UAE’s media regulatory body, on Tuesday released a statement saying reporter Serge Enderlin and cameraman Jon Bjorgvinsson had been “stopped for questioning” in an industrial area of Abu Dhabi and later released without charge.
“After the official opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, police witnessed the journalists trespassing at a secured location in Mussaffah and stopped them for questioning,” the council said, without providing a date or further details.
“Police later transported the reporters for further questioning at the police station and subsequently released them without charge.”
An Emirati official declined to confirm the duration of the questioning and said no official arrest had taken place.
RTS earlier said Enderlin and Bjorgvinsson, who arrived in the UAE early last week, were held for more than 50 hours, with no possibility to communicate with the outside world.
The broadcaster said the journalists were interrogated for up to nine hours at a time, blindfolded as they were shuttled between different locations.
It reported their camera, computers, hard drives and other material were confiscated.
Enderlin and Bjorgvinsson said authorities were focused on wanting to know why they were shooting images in the marketplace, seemingly angered by the fact that Pakistani workers had been filmed.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi was officially inaugurated on Wednesday and opened its doors to the public on Saturday. It is the first museum to carry the famed French name outside of France.
UAE says Swiss reporters ‘stopped for questioning’ after Louvre launch
UAE says Swiss reporters ‘stopped for questioning’ after Louvre launch
Israeli settlers forcibly enter Palestinian home in latest West Bank attack
- The settlers killed three sheep and injured four more, smashed a door and a window of the home
- Police said they arrested the five settlers on suspicion of trespassing onto Palestinian land
JERUSALEM: Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian home in the south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank overnight, breaking in and killing sheep, a Palestinian official said Tuesday. It was the latest in a surge of attacks by settlers against Palestinians in the territory in recent months.
Israeli police said they arrested five settlers.
The settlers killed three sheep and injured four more, smashed a door and a window of the home, and fired tear gas inside, sending three Palestinian children under the age of 4 to the hospital, said Amir Dawood, who directs an office documenting such attacks within a Palestinian governmental body called the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
Police said they arrested the five settlers on suspicion of trespassing onto Palestinian land, damaging property and dispensing pepper spray, not tear gas. They said they are investigating.
CCTV video from the attack in the town of As Samu’, shared by the commission, showed five masked settlers in dark clothing, some with batons, approaching the home and appearing to enter. Sounds of smashing are heard, as well as animal noises. Another video from inside shows masked figures appearing to strike sheep in the stable.
Photos of the aftermath, also shared by the commission, show smashed car windows and a shattered front door. Bloodied sheep lie dead as others stand with blood staining their wool. Inside the home, photos show broken glass and the furniture ransacked.
Dawood said it was the second settler attack on the family in less than two months. He called it “part of a systematic and ongoing pattern of settler violence targeting Palestinian civilians, their property and their means of livelihood, carried out with impunity under the protection of the Israeli occupation.”
During October’s olive harvest, settlers across the territory launched an average of eight attacks daily, the most since the United Nations humanitarian office began collecting data in 2006. The attacks continued in November, with the UN recording at least 136 by Nov. 24.
Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza — areas claimed by the Palestinians for a future state — in the 1967 war. It has settled over 500,000 Jews in the West Bank, in addition to over 200,000 in contested East Jerusalem.
Israel’s government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Cabinet Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the nation’s police force. Earlier this week, Smotrich said the Israeli cabinet had approved a proposal for 19 new Jewish settlements, another blow to the possibility of a Palestinian state.
