Emirati Rights Activist Enters 62nd Day of Hunger Strike

Emirati human rights activist Imran Radwan has entered today his 62nd day of hunger strike in UAE jail.

Radwan, who is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence in Al-Razeen prison, declared an open hunger strike in protest against prison guards' brutal attack on him along with other prisoners two months ago.

Since his arrest in 2012 and sentencing in 2013, Radwan has been subjected to ill treatment. According to a report published in 2015 by the Gulf Center for Human Rights on torture in the UAE, Radwan was subjected to constant surveillance, prevented from seeing his lawyer, denied a bed to sleep on or a chair to sit on, prevented from using his eye glasses, and deprived of sunlight.

The UAE has become increasingly authoritarian and experienced a major clampdown on activists since the 2011 Arab Spring. Authorities have been accused of suppressing free speech and "terrorising residents" through mass-surveillence.

There have also been reports of prisoners being tortured in UAE prisons and left vulnerable to sexual abuse and placed into solitary confinement.