(Beirut) – The United Arab Emirates’ crackdown on dissent has included the arrest and harassment of leading defense lawyers, making it nearly impossible for detained peaceful dissidents to get access to a lawyer, Human Rights Watch said today. The actions against the lawyers would make fair trials for detained dissidents impossible, Human Rights Watch said.| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have expanded their crackdown on peaceful political activists with the recent arrests of two more members of a non-violent political association advocating greater adherence to Islamic precepts, Human Rights Watch said today. The new arrests, of Saleh al-Dhufairi and Salem Sahooh, bring to 11 the total number of detained members of the group, the Reform and Social Guidance Association (al-Islah), since late March 2012. Authorities should end...| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – United Arab Emirates (UAE) state security officers have subjected detainees to systematic mistreatment, including torture, say hand-written letters from detainees smuggled out of jails, Alkarama, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch said today. The groups obtained 22 statements written by some of the 94 people on trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. The mistreatment described in the letters is consistent with other allegations of torture at UAE state...| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut) – The convictions of 69 defendants in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) mass trial of 94 government critics on July 2, 2013, were based on a fundamentally unfair trial, a coalition of human rights groups said today. The convictions probably violated the right of free association of many of those accused.| Human Rights Watch
(Beirut)– The United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have compounded serious pre-trial violations of fair trial rights by arbitrarily denying family members, international observers, and the international media access to the mass trial of 94 critics of the government, a coalition of seven international human rights organizations said today. The organizations urged the UAE authorities to investigate allegations of torture and to grant full public access to trial sessions.| Human Rights Watch
In 2024, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) unjustly convicted and sentenced at least 44 defendants in the second largest unfair mass trial, many of whom had already been serving prison sentences as part of the UAE94 mass trial. The UAE has promoted a public image of tolerance and openness through hosting events like COP28 while restricting scrutiny of its rampant systemic human rights violations and fossil fuel expansion. Migrant workers in the UAE face widespread abuses and exposure to dangerou...| www.hrw.org
(Beirut) – The United Arab Emirates’ deeply flawed new counterterrorism law will enable the courts to convict peaceful government critics as terrorists and sentence them to death.| Human Rights Watch
Joey Shea is a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Division investigating human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Shea was a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute focusing on digital information controls and operations, security, political violence, and the human rights impact of technology across the Middle East and North Africa.| Human Rights Watch
