On November 23, 2017, software engineer Mosaab Ahmed Abdel-Aziz Ramadan was released from an Egyptian prison, where he had been secretly detained for several weeks after being deported from the UAE.

While Mr. Abdel-Aziz is an Egyptian national, he had lived in the UAE for 20 years and, prior to his arrest by Emirati authorities in October 2014, attended university and worked as an executive manager for a mobile application development company in the country.  After 615 days in detention he was convicted on charges relating to his purported association with an illegal organization affiliated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.  According to Mr. Abdel-Aziz, he was subjected to torture and coerced to confess to membership in the Muslim Brotherhood during his time in secret detention.  While Mr. Abdel-Aziz’s father was formerly a media advisor to ousted president Mohamed Morsi, Mr. Abdel-Aziz himself has denied association with any political party and asserted that he is not politically active.  In November 2017, Mr. Abdel-Aziz completed his three-year prison sentence in Abu Dhabi and was forcibly deported to Egypt.