(Beirut) – Emirati authorities arbitrarily detained, convicted, and sentenced to long prison terms 57 Bangladeshi protesters following a rapid trial based on their participation in peaceful demonstrations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Human Rights Watch said today. The sentences, ranging from 10 years to life in prison, followed abusively fast judicial proceedings that raise serious concerns about fairness and due process.
On July 19, groups of mostly Bangladeshi citizens who live in the UAE carried out peaceful solidarity protests in multiple locations across the country to stand with student protesters in Bangladesh. On July 20, the UAE’s attorney general announced an investigation into the protests and, just one day later, the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal announced the conviction and handed down sentences for all 57 defendants.
“There is no way defendants can receive a fair trial when the investigation was launched and completed, trial commenced, and verdict rendered in less than 48 hours,” said Joey Shea, United Arab Emirates researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These sentences make a mockery of justice and Emirati authorities should immediately release all those sentenced for peacefully protesting in solidarity.”
The UAE places severe restrictions on the rights to free expression, association, and assembly. Protests and demonstrations are fully prohibited under the country’s penal code, which violates both the UAE’s Constitution and international human rights standards, such as the Arab Charter on Human Rights to which the UAE is a party.
Human Rights Watch verified six videos of the protests posted to TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter) on July 19 or on the days following. The videos, filmed in the evening, show peaceful protesters chanting and marching down streets across the UAE, including Abu Dhabi, Ajman, and in two areas in Dubai: Al Satwa and Downtown Dubai. From these videos and others Human Rights Watch analyzed, none of the protesters were engaging in violent acts or using language to incite violence in their chants.
Violent clashes have broken out in Bangladesh after July 15, when government forces and supporters attacked students protesting 30 percent quotas in government jobs for families of war veterans who fought for the country’s independence in 1971. More than 150 people have been killed, thousands injured, and many arrested. Peaceful demonstrations of solidarity by Bangladeshi diaspora groups had been taking place in a number of other countries.
On July 21, the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal sentenced 53 Bangladeshi citizens to 10 years in prison, one to 11 years, and three to life, according to the Emirates News Agency (Wakalat Anba’a al Emarat, WAM), the UAE’s official state news agency. The court ordered the defendants to be deported upon completion of their terms and their electronic devices seized. The egregiously long sentences appear to have come after only one court session.
According to WAM, the sentences were based on charges related to “calling for demonstrations and inciting riots to pressure their home government.” The trial came after an investigation that apparently “confirmed [the defendants’] involvement in gathering in public, inciting unrest, disrupting public security, and promoting such gatherings and protests, including recording and disseminating audiovisual footage of these actions online.” The public prosecution sought the “maximum penalty” for the defendants. The statement referred to just one court appointed defense lawyer representing all the defendants.
On July 20, Hamad al Shamsi, the UAE’s attorney general, announced an investigation into the Bangladeshi citizens who “gathered and incited riots in several streets across the UAE.” On July 21, the Abu Dhabi court held the trial, announced the convictions, and handed down the sentences: all within 24 hours.
Protests and demonstrations are fully prohibited in the UAE. Article 212 of the 2021 penal code provides a life sentence for anyone who calls for, promotes, or leads a gathering in a public space “with the intent of committing riots, preventing or disrupting the implementation of laws and regulations, or disturbing public security, even if his call is not accepted.” Article 26 of the country’s 2021 cybercrimes law criminalizes the act of using the internet to “plan, organize, promote, or advocate demonstrations, marches, and the like without a permit from the competent authorities.”
The speed with which dozens of defendants were investigated, tried, and convicted raises serious concerns about the fairness of the judicial proceedings and amounts to an unfair trial, Human Rights Watch said.
One video posted on July 21 on TikTok recorded near the Dubai Mall in Downtown Dubai shows hundreds, possibly thousands, of protesters gathered on the road replicating slogans raised by the students in Bangladesh. In another video analyzed and verified by Human Rights Watch, protestors chant while marching through the streets of Al Satwa in Dubai and holding Bangladeshi flags and banners, one of which says “Bangladeshi Students.”
The videos were all filmed in the evening. In one video filmed in Ajman, a protester’s watch shows the time as 9:15 p.m.. In another video filmed in Al Satwa, Dubai, and posted on TikTok at 7:36 p.m. local time, the moon is low in the Dubai skyline, which matches the approximate time it was posted online. Three of the videos verified by Human Rights Watch have since been deleted or made private.
In a statement posted to the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) on July 21, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed said that “more than 200 nationalities live side by side in the UAE, all contributing to the ongoing development of our nation. Security and safety are the bedrock of our society and we encourage everyone who calls the UAE home to uphold these principles of peaceful coexistence and understanding.”
In a statement to the government-backed news outlet Khaleej Times, the Bangladesh Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Bangladesh Consulate General in Dubai said “any kind of assembly, procession or shouting slogans, indulging in any activity that may create unrest, panic or confusion in the public mind, spreading rumor/propaganda, recording video of it or any such message/image/video on social media are strictly prohibited.” The statement continued: “[i]n case of engaging in such activities, the concerned person is likely to face more severe punishment including cancellation of visa, jail, fine, repatriation, and ban on entering this country in the future.”
Bangladeshi authorities, especially the UAE Embassy, should call on UAE authorities to release the detained 57 Bangladeshis, Human Rights Watch said.
The UAE relies heavily on over a million migrant workers from Bangladesh, the third highest share of the foreign population. Over 100,000 Bangladeshis traveled for employment to the UAE in 2022 alone, according to government statistics.
Migrant workers in the UAE experience serious labor abuses like wage theft, exorbitant recruitment fees, restrictions on job mobility, and passport confiscation. The UAE’s abusive kafala (visa sponsorship) system underpins these abuses as it ties migrant workers’ visas to their employers. Recruitment fees, while illegal, remain a ubiquitous aspect of UAE recruiting practices, and the country has failed to effectively limit such practices.
UAE-based migrant workers from climate-vulnerable countries like Bangladesh are exposed to escalating climate risks, especially when working in UAE’s extreme heat without adequate protection.
Workers, who unable to protest these horrific labor conditions due to the abusive kafala system, the ban on trade unions, and restricted freedom of speech and assembly, are being convicted unfairly for peacefully protesting for a cause unrelated to the UAE, Human Rights Watch said.
The Emirati government’s sustained assault on rights and freedom over the last decade has led to the complete closure of civic space, severe restrictions of freedom of expression and assembly, both online and offline, and the criminalization of peaceful dissent.
“The UAE claims to uphold principles of tolerance, peaceful coexistence and understanding, but arbitrarily detaining and sentencing peacefully protesting residents to life imprisonment indicates the appalling violation of these principles,” Shea said.
