human rights defender
Khalifa Rabia
Actions and Campaigns
Organization affiliation
- Justice and Dignity Committee
HRD's Gender
Man
Type of HRD
- Other
HRD's thematic area of engagement
- Other
Current Status
In prison (sentenced)
HRD's bio and work
Khalifa Rabia is a businessman from Fujairah city. He was arrested in July 2013 over a tweet he made in solidarity with the defendants in the UAE 94 trial.
Detained since
Jul 23, 2013
Charge(s)
- Terrorism
Sentence
30 years in prison
Latitude: 23.725350618906106
Longitude: 54.91778169617858
Geolocation of detention
Country or area of detention
Region of detention
- Asia: Western Asia
Location of detention - City/Town
Abu Dhabi
Location of detention - Facility
Alrazeen prison
Allegations / reports of ill-treatment
Upon his arrest, Rabia was subjected to forced disappearance and torture. He was also held without any charges and denied contact with his family.
Recent case update / evolution
On 10 March 2014, Rabia was sentenced to five years in prison and fined 500,000 AED (US $136,127). Even though his sentence expired on 23 July 2018, he remained detained in the Munasaha Center in Al-Razeen Prison known as prison counseling section. On December 7, 2023, a new mass trial began before the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal, where Rabia was retried for new terrorism charges. On 10 July 2024, the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court meted out sentences ranging from between 10 years to life in prison for 53 defendants in the UAE’s second largest unfair mass trial which is known as the UAE84 case. Rabia was sentenced to life in prison, which is tantamount to 25 years in prison, “for the crime of establishing, founding and managing” the Justice and Dignity Committee, allegedly “with the aim of committing terrorist acts on the country’s soil”.
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