Overview
- The UAE presidency announced on Friday that President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a pardon for Abdulrahman al‑Qaradawi and state media said procedures are under way to implement the decision.
- Al‑Qaradawi had been convicted by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal’s Cybercrime Circuit on 27 August and sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined AED200,000.
- He was detained in Lebanon in December 2024 and extradited to the UAE in January 2025 after Lebanese authorities acted on an arrest warrant from the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council that cited an Emirati request.
- United Nations human rights experts and rights groups had warned that al‑Qaradawi was effectively ‘forcibly disappeared’ after extradition and urged authorities to disclose his whereabouts and respect due process.
- Al‑Qaradawi’s case highlights regional tensions over criminalizing online speech, the use of intergovernmental security mechanisms to transfer critics across borders, and continued uncertainty about whether he has been physically released or repatriated.