Human Rights Watch is reporting the United Arab Emirates has been detaining a British academic for months in terrible conditions and without charging him until last week. UAE authorities have now charged Matthew Hedges of Durham University in the United Kingdom with spying after holding him for over five months in prolonged periods of solitary confinement, without access to sufficient legal assistance, medical attention or visits from his loved ones. Hedges’ research focused on the Arab Spring. Human Rights Watch has raised concern over the UAE’s practice of detaining critics, academics and activists and called for transparency and a fair trial in Hedges’ case.