HRW: UAE dissident held in Syria risks torture if extradited

Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday that an Emirati dissident arrested in Syria is at risk of torture if he is extradited to the United Arab Emirates.

Jasem al-Shamsi, sentenced in absentia in 2013 during the "UAE 94" mass trial of government critics, could face "prolonged arbitrary detention" if he is returned to the country, the rights group said.

The oil-rich monarchy has pressured Syria's neighbours Lebanon and Jordan to extradite activists in recent years, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The group was "deeply concerned that Emirati authorities will once again exert pressure on another country in the region to forcibly return a dissident convicted in a sham trial", said UAE researcher Joey Shea.

"Syrian authorities should deny any request to extradite al-Shamsi", Shea added, warning he would be "at serious risk of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and torture".

Syrian authorities detained Shamsi, 55, at a checkpoint in the Damascus countryside on 6 November, without saying why he had been held, HRW said, citing an informed source.

In March, Syrian authorities told Shamsi there was an Interpol request for him, the group said, adding it had been unable to confirm the request.

Shamsi was handed a lengthy sentence in the "UAE 94" trial of activists, lawyers, students and teachers in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings.

The UAE accused those convicted of links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political group.

Shamsi was also given a life sentence last year in another mass trial that convicted many of those jailed in the initial proceedings, his wife told the Emirates Detainee Advocacy Centre (EDAC).