Human Rights Watch said that South Sudanese political analyst and writer Samuel Peter Oyay remains detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without charge, one year after his arrest, noting that UAE authorities have not disclosed to his family the legal basis for his detention.
The organization said Oyay fled South Sudan in 2014 and moved to the UAE, where he ran a business and wrote for independent platforms covering South Sudan, criticizing what he described as government corruption and the benefits derived from it by the elite.
According to a source familiar with the case who spoke to Human Rights Watch, UAE security forces in plain clothes arrested Oyay in front of his four children at their home in Dubai on September 30, 2025, after searching the home for two hours, without presenting an arrest warrant or informing him or his family of the charges or legal basis for his arrest.
The organization called on UAE authorities to release Oyay. Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher on the UAE, Joy Shea, said that his year-long detention without charge warrants his immediate release.
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