(Beirut) -The detention of an Emirati dissident in Syria raises serious concerns that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will pressure Syrian authorities to extradite him, Human Rights Watch said today.
An informed source told Human Rights Watch that Syrian authorities detained Jasem al-Shamsi, 55, at a checkpoint in the Damascus countryside on November 6, 2025, and have held him since without disclosing the legal basis for his detention. The UAE has pressed Lebanon and Jordan to return dissidents in recent years. If returned, al-Shamsi will be at serious risk of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and torture.
"Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned that Emirati authorities will once again exert pressure on another country in the region to forcibly return a dissident convicted in a sham trial," said Joey Shea, United Arab Emirates researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Syrian authorities should deny any request to extradite al-Shamsi to the UAE, where he would face enforced disappearance and prolonged arbitrary detention."
In 2013, Emirati authorities sentenced al-Shamsi in absentia to 10 years in prison as part of the notorious UAE94 unfair mass trial against political dissidents and human rights defenders. He was sentenced to life in prison in absentia for his peaceful advocacy in a second unfair mass trial in July 2024.
In March, Syrian authorities at the Immigration and Passports Department told al-Shamsi that there was an Interpol request for him. Human Rights Watch could not independently confirm whether there is an Interpol request for al-Shamsi. Warrants issued by the Arab Interior Ministers' Council, a regional body concerned with security issues, are often misleadingly referred to as requests from "Arab Interpol." These requests have led to the arrest and unlawful extradition of political dissidents and human rights defenders across Arab League countries, including twodissidents who were immediately subject to enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention upon arrival in the UAE.
Al-Shamsi was driving with his wife through the Damascus countryside when Syrian security forces stopped them and asked for identity documents. Security forces detained him and took him to the al-Fayha criminal security center, the informed source said. Security agents searched the family car without presenting a warrant and did not answer questions about the arrest. Syrian authorities have not informed al-Shamsi or his wife of the basis for the arrest.
On November 8, al-Shamsi's wife returned to al-Fayha security center to ask about her husband, but authorities there denied knowledge of his detention and whereabouts, the source said. Al-Shamsi's wife visited the Prisons Administration in Damascus on November 12, where authorities confirmed that he was in custody but denied knowledge of his exact whereabouts, the source said. Al-Shamsi was able to contact his family on November 27, when he confirmed that he was in custody and said he was being treated well, the source said.
Emirati authorities have repeatedly pressured countries that are members of the Arab Interior Ministers Council to forcibly return dissidents to the UAE, where they have faced enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture.
In May 2023, Jordanian authorities detained and forcibly extradited to the UAE a dual Emirati-Turkish citizen, Khalaf Abdulrahman al-Romaithi. Emirati authorities forcibly disappeared al-Romaithi upon arrival in the UAE and sentenced him to life in prison in 2024. Al-Romaithi and al-Shamsi were tried together in absentia as part of the notorious UAE94 unfair mass trial in 2013.
In January 2025, Lebanese authorities deported an Egyptian-Turkish poet, Abdulrahman Youssef al-Qardawi, to the UAE on the Emirati authorities' request, citing charges related to his peaceful activity on social media. Lebanese authorities extradited al-Qardawi to the UAE even though he was not an Emirati citizen, nor was he in the UAE when the alleged offenses were committed.
In December 2023, the Emirati government carried out its second largest mass trial against 84 activists, dissidents, and human rights defenders, including al-Shamsi and al-Romaithi, for forming an independent advocacy group in 2010, a charge many have already served arbitrary prison sentences for as part of the grossly unfair 2013 case.
On November 19, 2025, Ali al-Khaja, one of the defendants in both trials, died in custody in the UAE's notorious al-Razeen Prison.
Syria is obligated to respect the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits countries from returning anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture, or other serious ill-treatment or a threat to their life. This principle is codified in the Convention Against Torture, to which Syria is a party, and customary international law.
"The Syrian government should do the right thing and avoid being complicit in the UAE's rights violations if they forcibly return al-Shamsi to the UAE," Shea said.
