Fears grow Emirati dissident forcibly disappeared in Syria could be extradited to UAE

The forced disappearance of an Emirati dissident and political activist near the Syrian capital of Damascus has sparked fears among his family that he could face extradition to the United Arab Emirates.

Jassem Rashid al-Shamsi, who was previously jailed by Emirati authorities during the country's infamous "UAE 94" trial, was seized by Syrian security forces on 6 November whilst driving towards the Damascus suburb of Ein Tarma.

His Syrian-born wife, who was with him at the time, told an opposition Emirati rights group that armed men dressed in black took him without presenting a judicial warrant or stating any charges.

Following his abduction, his wife said that she has been denied access to her husband and that she feared he was at high risk of being forcibly extradited to the UAE, where he faces a life sentence in another case.

"[His arrest] is related to his political status in the UAE, not to his presence in Syria," his wife told the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC).

Shamsi, 48, was a former UAE government official who was jailed in a mass trial in 2013, at the peak of the Arab Spring uprisings, for his role in trying to overthrow the Emirati government, a charge he and the other defendants have vehemently denied.

Rights groups widely criticised the trial as grossly unfair, as it saw 94 lawyers, professors, activists, and students who had petitioned the government to institute democratic reforms tried for plotting to overthrow it. 

The signatories were said to have called for an elected Federal National Council with full regulatory powers and universal suffrage, a retreat of the security state and basic human rights within the existing framework of a constitutional monarchy.

In December 2023, he faced new unfounded terrorism-related charges as part of the "UAE 84" case and was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2024.

In the interview with EDAC, Shamsi's wife said that after he was arrested by the Syrian security forces, he was placed in an unmarked car and taken to a security facility in Damascus.

After being denied access to her husband, she said that she was ordered to be taken home and was told that his arrest was a routine procedure.

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She recalled being told, "You're at a security facility, no one gets kidnapped here."

In a statement, EDAC demanded Shamsi's immediate and unconditional release, calling his disappearance "a serious violation of international law".

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) accused Syria of acting at "the request of the UAE", and engaging in “transnational repression” against political exiles.

The rights group warned that by extraditing him to the UAE, Shamsi could be exposed to torture.

Meanwhile, Alkarama, an independent Swiss-based human rights non-governmental organisation, said that if Syrian authorities handed Shamsi over to the Emirates, it would violate Damascus' obligations under international treaties, notably Article 3 of the Convention against Torture.

Mohammed bin Saqr Al Zaabi, a former UAE judicial advisor now living in self-imposed exile, said that it remained unclear whether Syrian authorities would hand Shamsi over to the UAE.

"I don’t know Syrian law, but in principle, this is someone who entered the country and regularised his status legally," Zaabi told Al-Hiwar TV.

"He has been living in Syria for ten months, and during all that time, you have not found any violation, any crime, or any complaint against him. Yet suddenly you arrest him at a checkpoint, a checkpoint that seemed coordinated, not random, and then you make him disappear.

"So there are clearly circumstances that indicate what may be happening, and if anything is being done, it is not being done through a legal process."

So far, the Syrian government has not publicly commented on the arrest, extradition or current whereabouts of Shamsi.

Middle East Eye reached out to the Syrian interior ministry for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.