UAE84 mass trial produced lengthy sentences for government critics

On 10 July 2024, the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court imposed sentences ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment in the mass case commonly called UAE84.

What happened?

Emirati prosecutors accused the defendants of establishing or managing a clandestine terrorist organization known as the Justice and Dignity Committee. Human Rights Watch reported that many defendants had already been convicted in the 2013 UAE94 case over the same or closely related organization, raising double-jeopardy concerns. Among the known 2024 outcomes, four people received 15-year sentences and 40 received life sentences, according to the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center figures cited by Human Rights Watch.

Rights groups described severe due-process problems: restricted access to case files, limited legal assistance, secrecy, allegations of abuse and reliance on evidence associated with the earlier prosecution. The UAE's position was that the case concerned an organization it regarded as terrorist and that national security law was being applied through domestic courts.

Who is responsible?

Judges issued the sentences and prosecutors brought the case. The proceedings occurred within the federal state system under President Mohamed bin Zayed (opens in a new tab), but the public record does not show that he personally ordered individual verdicts. Personal judicial commands should not be inferred from his office.

Government responsibility is nonetheless institutional because federal prosecutors, courts and security bodies carried out a mass prosecution of political critics (opens in a new tab). Responsibility for specific abuses inside detention or trial proceedings requires evidence identifying the officials involved.

What is established and what is not?

It is established that the court delivered lengthy sentences on 10 July 2024, that the case involved at least 84 defendants, and that many of those prosecuted had already faced the UAE94 proceedings. Human Rights Watch documented known convictions and fair-trial concerns; Amnesty International also condemned the mass convictions and called for them to be quashed.

It is not established by these sources that every defendant engaged only in peaceful conduct, because the government alleged terrorism-related activity and did not publish a full evidentiary record accessible for independent review. The central verified problem is procedural and coercive: critics faced mass prosecution and extraordinarily long imprisonment in proceedings that major rights organizations said failed basic fair-trial standards.

Amnesty International reported that the 10 July 2024 mass-trial outcome covered 84 defendants, six of them companies: 43 defendants received life sentences, five received 15 years, five received 10 years, 24 cases were set aside and one defendant was acquitted. Amnesty said many defendants had already been tried or detained in the earlier UAE94 case and documented restrictions on access to lawyers, court documents and family observation. On 26 June 2025, Human Rights Watch reported that the Federal Supreme Court overturned the earlier dismissal of 24 defendants and sentenced them to life imprisonment, raising the case to 83 convictions and 67 life sentences. Human Rights Watch also reported that appeals by 53 defendants convicted in July 2024 had been rejected in March 2025.