UAE Conducts Mass Trial of Nearly 90 Detainees Amid COP28 Summit

Prominent human rights defenders among those charged, as strict laws stifle protests at climate summit.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) is conducting a mass trial of nearly 90 prisoners on terrorism charges as it hosts the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit.
Among those charged in the case is Ahmed Mansoor, the recipient of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015, who was targeted with Israeli spyware on his iPhone in 2016 likely deployed by the Emirati government ahead of his 2017 arrest and sentencing to 10 years in prison over his activism.
Others among the 87 charged include the activist Nasser bin Ghaith, an academic held since August 2015 over his tweets.
The UAE, while socially liberal in many regards compared with its Middle Eastern neighbors, has strict laws governing expression, which has been seen at COP28, where there have been none of the typical protests outside of the venue as activists worry about the country's vast network of surveillance cameras.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch held a demonstration in which they displayed Mansoor's face in the U.N.-administered Blue Zone in a protest carefully watched by Emirati officials.