Hamad Al-Shamsi is an Emirati human rights defender and Executive Director of the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center (EDAC). While living in exile, Al-Shamsi was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison during the UAE94 case, a mass trial which failed to meet minimum international standards for fair trial and due process, and targeted several human rights defenders. In 2021, Al-Shamsi was added to the UAE Cabinet’s terror list, further criminalising his human rights work. In December 2023, Al-Shamsi was among the 84 defendants charged in the widely-criticised “UAE84” case, which utilises fabricated terrorism charges in order to illegally extend the sentences of the accused, none of whom have committed any new offences. On 10 July 2024, Al-Shamsi was sentenced in absentia to life in prison. The sentence was upheld on 04 March 2025.