Human Rights Group: UAE Criminalizes Dissent in an Oppressive Climate
A London-based human rights organization has stated that the UAE regime imposes a repressive environment that criminalizes freedom of opinion and expression, using the judiciary to intimidate activists and dissidents in order to suppress any calls for reform and demands for freedoms.
In a statement, the Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK affirmed that UAE authorities are systematically silencing voices calling for political and human rights reforms and undermining human rights through repression.
The organization highlighted that, despite completing his sentence in July 2022, the UAE authorities continue to detain prominent lawyer and human rights advocate Dr. Mohamed Al-Roken as part of the so-called “UAE 84” case. This ongoing arbitrary detention of activists and human rights defenders has drawn international condemnation and persistent calls for his immediate release.
Dr. Mohamed Al-Roken is one of the UAE’s most prominent human rights defenders. He is a professor of constitutional law, a member of the International Bar Association, and the former president of the Emirates Jurists Association.
UAE authorities arrested Al-Roken on July 17, 2012, while he was on his way to report the disappearance of his son. He was held in an undisclosed location for eight months, during which he was subjected to torture and degrading treatment, including solitary confinement and denial of contact with his family or legal counsel.
In July 2013, a UAE court handed down a harsh 10-year prison sentence with an additional three years of administrative surveillance in a mass trial widely condemned by human rights organizations as lacking the most basic standards of justice.
Despite the completion of his sentence in 2022, the authorities refused to release him. Instead, in December 2023, they retried him in a new case with allegations of supporting a “terrorist organization,” sentencing him to life imprisonment in what has been described as a “judicial farce.”
Dr. Al-Roken is currently held in Al-Razeen Prison, one of the UAE’s most notorious detention facilities, where he has suffered repeated physical and psychological abuse, including torture, prolonged solitary confinement, denial of medical care, and severe restrictions. He has developed chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure and severe ear infections due to exposure to loud noise torture, yet he has been denied necessary medical treatment.
According to the human rights organization, the continued detention of Dr. Al-Roken reflects the UAE authorities’ ongoing efforts to silence voices demanding political and human rights reforms. This repression persists in an environment that criminalizes freedom of expression and employs the judiciary to intimidate activists and dissidents.
Furthermore, the UAE’s actions place it in an embarrassing position on the international stage, as it continues to portray itself as an open and progressive state while, in reality, it systematically escalates its crackdown on human rights defenders.
The organization concluded that the continued detention of Mohamed Al-Roken despite the completion of his sentence, along with his retrial on fabricated charges, exposes the UAE authorities’ practice of collective punishment against activists. His release, along with that of other political detainees, remains an urgent necessity to end the ongoing human rights violations that have subjected the UAE to mounting international condemnation.
