Watch: Emirati academic sentenced to 10 years for freedom of expression charges
On March 29, 2017, Bin Ghaith was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment for criticizing the UAE authorities on his personal twitter account.
On 18 August 2015, Dr Nasser bin Ghaith was subjected to enforced disappearance after he was arrested by UAE State Security at his place of work.
On 4 April 2016, he was seen for the first time since his disappearance, when he was brought before the State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court for his first trial.
On this occasion, as well as during his second hearing on 2 May 2016, Dr Nasser bin Ghaith told the court that he had been kept in secret detention and subjected to beatings and deliberate sleep deprivation for nearly eight months. The judge dismissed his claims and refused to order an independent investigation into his allegations of torture and ill-treatment.
