United Arab Emirates

On 5 November, 20 Egyptians and 10 Emiratis went on trial at the state security court on charges of running a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Abu Dhabi.

At least two citizen journalists and two activists are still being held in the UAE as part of a year-old government crackdown on citizen-journalists and human rights activists who tried to provide information about the trial of 94 pro-reform activists (known as the “UAE 94”).

News emerged from prison that some of those jailed in the UAE 94 case began a hunger strike on 31 July, with 20 detainees participating to protest the mistreatment they continue to be subjected to while in detention.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates are making transnational attempts to shut down a site belonging to the United States’ largest Arab-American newspaper, al-Watan.

Fouda said he was held in solitary confinement throughout the time he was in detention and had only a mattress, a prayer rug, and a Quran. He was not allowed to have his eyeglasses for the first few weeks and was blindfolded each time he asked to go to the bathroom.

Egyptian journalist held incommunicado for a month, while crackdown continues related to the trial of the “UAE 94” in which critics were rounded up and jailed, and websites were banned.

The convictions of 69 defendants in the United Arab Emirates’ mass trial of 94 government critics were based on a fundamentally unfair trial, a coalition of human rights groups said.

Migrant construction workers employed by an Emirati construction firm, Arabtec, went on strike on 18 May 2013, demanding better pay and conditions. According to international media reports, the strike ended after police entered workers’ residential compounds on Monday and immigration officials issued at least 43 deportation orders.

Arrested on 22 March, Abdullah Al-Hadidi was convicted in a lower court in April of having disseminated information on Twitter “in bad faith.”

During a state visit to Britain by the UAE’s president next week, rights groups are urging UK Prime Minister David Cameron to speak up about the generally deteriorating human rights record of the UAE and especially regarding the unfair trial of 94 jailed dissidents.

A 10-month prison sentence has been handed down to netizen Abdullah Al-Hadidi for tweeting details of the UAE’s trial of the 94 activists accused of plotting to overthrow the regime.

UAE authorities have been arbitrarily denying family members, international observers, and the international media access to the mass trial of 94 critics of the government.

UAE authorities have been arbitrarily denying family members, international observers, and the international media access to the mass trial of 94 critics of the government.

The 94 Emirati activists were arrested following a broader crackdown on freedom of expression and opinion that took place over the 12 months preceding the trial.

Despite the breakneck pace of its modernization and economic development, the UAE remains one of the more repressive countries in a highly repressive region.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies reports on attacks carried out by the governments of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Oman against human rights defenders for cooperating with the UN.