On 9 March 2013, Abdullah Al Hamid and Mohammad Al Qahtani, two prominent Saudi human rights defenders, were sentenced by the Riyadh Criminal Court to heavy prison sentences for inter alia "disobeying the ruler", "inciting disorder", "setting up an unlicensed organization" and having shared "false information presented as facts to official international bodies".

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Dr Abdulrahmane Al Jaidah, a Qatari doctor arrested one year ago at Dubai international Airport by the State Security Services, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment following an unfair trial on 3 March 2014 by the Abu Dhabi Federal Supreme Court for "helping an illegal secret organisation". He is currently imprisoned in Al-Razeen prison, the same detention facility where some of the UAE94 are being unlawfully detained. Today, Alkarama asked the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to intervene with the UAE authorities to request his immediate release.

Jamal Al Hammadi, a teacher of Islamic education from Khor Fakkan abducted on 20 April 2013 by state security services, was last seen 5 February 2014 in Abu Dhabi's State Security prison. A group of detainees recently transferred from this prison facility reported that Jamal was being detained there in very harsh conditions.

The trial of Amro El-Qazaz and Islam El Homsy, two Egyptian journalists working for the online news outlet "Rassd" (the monitor), opened today before the Misdemeanour Military Court of North Cairo. This is the first referral of civilians to a military court since the new Egyptian constitution entered into force on 18 January 2014. "We are very concerned by the current persecution against journalists and the use of military courts to clamp down on individuals lawfully exercising their rights under international law", said Alkarama.

Mohammad Muthana Al Ammari, a 34 year-old Yemeni teacher who had participated, like so many others, in the demonstrations that toppled former Yemeni president Saleh, was abducted from the street in Sana'a on 5 December 2011 by a dozen armed men. After being disappeared and tortured, he was sentenced on 19 October 2012 to two years in prison by a special courtfor political motives after a grossly unfair trial. It has been three years since the Yemeni revolution.