Samuel Peter Oyay
© Private
(Beirut) – A South Sudanese political commentator remains in prison in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without charge a year after his arrest, Human Rights Watch said today. Emirati authorities have not disclosed the legal basis for the arrest of the commentator, Samuel Peter Oyay, to his family.
Oyay fled South Sudan in 2014, fearing for his safety. He moved to the UAE and had been running a private business there. While in the UAE, Oyay had written regularly for independent South Sudan-focused platforms, accusing its government of corruption that benefits the elite. The UAE and South Sudan have strengthened their bilateral relations in recent years. In 2025, President Salva Kiir visited the UAE at least three times.
“The UAE government’s zero-tolerance policy toward peaceful criticism is increasingly targeting critics of Abu Dhabi’s foreign allies who live in the UAE,” said Joey Shea, senior United Arab Emirates researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Emirati authorities should immediately release Samuel Oyay, who has been held for a year without charge.”
In the last article published before his detention, on September 21, 2025, Oyay criticized the trial of Riek Machar, the suspended first vice president and leader of the main opposition party, as a ploy by President Kiir to weaken a rival rather than deliver justice. On September 22, 2026, the president dissolved the transitional government, most likely to pave the way for elections, while Machar and other key opposition figures’ trial was ongoing.
On September 30, 2025, Emirati security forces in civilian clothes arrested Oyay in front of his four children at their home in Dubai after searching his home for two hours, an informed source told Human Rights Watch. During Oyay’s arrest, Emirati security forces did not show his family a warrant, or inform him of t
