[3] Mansoor, an engineer, blogger, and member of Human Rights Watch, was arrested the same day for signing a petition in favor of an elected parliament,[3] and Dalk, al-Khamis, and Khaleq were detained for their online activities before the end of the month.
[7] A Human Rights Watch spokesman criticized the "public relations campaign" of the UAE government against the defendants, stating that dozens of pro-government demonstrators were attending the trial to protest the five prisoners.
[7] The government charged the prisoners with violating article 176 of the UAE Penal Code, which criminalizes insults to the nation's leadership;[4] the prosecutor's case focused on their posts to an online pro-democracy forum, which had by then been shut down and replaced with a travel service.
[6] Amnesty International later condemned their trial as "fundamentally unfair" and "marred with irregularities", stating that the defendants had been "denied any meaningful opportunity to challenge the charges and the evidence against them".
[15] Bin Ghaith told reporters that he was glad to be free, but that he felt that the trial had been "a sad moment for our homeland, a beginning of a police state that has tarnished the image of the UAE forever".
[1] According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, authorities told Khaleq that he must choose between permanent expulsion from the UAE to a limited number of countries or indefinite detention.
[19] Amnesty International issued a statement that "Ahmed Abdul Khaleq should never have been forced to leave the country and this event sets alarm bells ringing regarding the fate of others held in the UAE in connection with alleged plots against state security".