[3] Inspired by the growing momentum of the pro-democracy Arab Spring, Emirati activists began to be more vocal in their opposition to the UAE government in early 2011.
[4] 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,[4] and Dalk, al-Khamis, and Khaleq were detained for their online activities before the end of the month.
Amnesty International designated the five prisoners of conscience and called for their immediate and unconditional release,[1] recruiting comedians and writers to lobby for their cause at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival.
[8] 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.
[8] The government charged the prisoners with violating article 176 of the UAE Penal Code, which criminalizes insults to the nation's leadership;[1] 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] On 13 November, with the trial still in progress, the five began a hunger strike to protest their continued detention; Human Rights Watch reported that the five were in poor health.
[2] 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".
[18] Following Mansoor's deteriorating health conditions and massive weight loss due to his month-long hunger strike, the Human Rights Watch demanded his immediate release in April 2019 and described his sentence of 10 years in jail as an "unfair trial".
[24] Nasser bin Ghaith was arrested on 18 August 2015, four days after criticising the Egyptian government on Twitter; he was also accused of having ties with al-Islah and the Ummah Party, which had been classified as terrorist organisations in the UAE in 2014.