In March 2011, after a group of 133 Emirati academics, judges, lawyers, students, and human rights defenders signed a petition addressed to the President of the United Arab Emirates and the country’s Federal Supreme Council calling for democratic reforms, the UAE’s State Security Apparatus (SSA) initiated a campaign of arrests against the individuals who signed the document. Dr. Hadef Al-Owais was arrested on September 12, 2012, as part of the “UAE94” for signing the petition calling for democratic reform in the UAE. Arrested individuals were later sentenced in the UAE’s largest mass trial, known as the “UAE94”, before the Federal Supreme Court. On January 27, 2013, the 94 defendants were charged with founding, organising and administering an organisation aimed at overthrowing the government, on the basis of article 180 of the penal code. On July 2, 2013, the Emirati authorities convicted 61 of the 94 defendants, and Al-Owais was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment followed by three years’ probation. Al-Owais’s sentence ended in September 2022, but under the pretext of “rehabilitation needs”, pursuant to the UAE’s Counter-Terrorism Law and the Munasaha Centre Law, the authorities have extended his detention indefinitely. On December 7, 2023, a new mass trial began before the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal, where Al-Owais 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. Dr. Hadef Al-Owais 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”. On December 1, 2023, Al-Owais was able to call his family from the inside of an unknown facility belonging to the State Security Apparatus (SSA).