Arab social media users have voiced alarm over the fate of Emirati opposition figure Jasim Rashid al-Shamsi, who was reportedly arrested by Syrian security forces earlier this week.
The London-based Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC) said on Saturday that Syrian authorities had detained Shamsi in Damascus on 6 November "without a judicial warrant or clear charges" and transferred him to an unknown location. The group said all contact with him has since been cut off.
EDAC described the detention as a "serious violation of international law and the principles of protection for political dissidents", warning of possible Emirati pressure on Syrian authorities to extradite him.
Shamsi, a former assistant deputy finance minister in the UAE, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in 2015 in connection with the mass trial known as UAE94, which targeted 94 political and Islamist activists accused of seeking to overthrow the Emirati government.
The advocacy group said Shamsi, who lived in Turkey for about a decade before moving to Syria with his Syrian wife and children, is well known for his human rights work and for supporting the Syrian uprising since its early days.
The Emirates Centre for Human Rights (ECHR) also called for his "immediate and unconditional release", holding the Syrian government fully responsible for his safety and warning against any coordination that could lead to his handover to Emirati authorities.
Shamsi, who has more than 20,000 followers on X and over 8,000 YouTube subscribers, has long been an outspoken critic of the UAE government, its normalisation of ties with Israel, and US policy in the Middle East.
Online, reactions reflected deep concern over his fate. Algerian rights activist Mohamed Zitout questioned whether Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa would "succumb to Emirati pressure" and hand Shamsi over, while pro-Muslim Brotherhood commentator Mohammed al-Mokhtar al-Shinqiti condemned the arrest as "a betrayal of a free man who stood with the Syrian people for years".
Neither the Syrian nor Emirati governments have commented publicly on the reports.