Watch: Rapid deterioration of the health of an Emirati athlete

Human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch expressed concern over the health of Ahmed Mansour, a UAE-based rights activist who has been on hunger strike for nearly a month, and called for his immediate release.

"Ahmed Mansur risks his health to draw attention to his unjust imprisonment simply because he calls for tolerance and progress that the UAE claims to characterize its society," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Amnesty International.

"His health is deteriorating and he seems to have lost a lot of weight," the agency quoted a source close to Mansour as saying.

The organization called on the UAE authorities to "immediately and unconditionally release Mansur to continue to demand justice, which the region is sorely lacking."

According to the organization, "after an unfair trial," Mansur was sentenced in May 2018 to 10 years' imprisonment for his peaceful demand for reform.

Mansour is a recipient of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for 2015 and a member of the Middle East and North Africa Advisory Committee at Human Rights Watch, the organization whose members have joined in calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Mansour.

Authorities arrested Mansour on 20 March 2017. For more than a year, he was not allowed access to a lawyer and received very limited family visits.

On December 24, 2018, the Federal Supreme Court, the UAE's highest court to hear cases of state security, upheld the penalty, eliminating his last chance of early release.

In April 2011, the UAE authorities detained Mansour for his peaceful demand for reform. In November, after an unfair trial, the Abu Dhabi Supreme Federal Court sentenced him to three years in prison for abusing senior officials in the country.

Although the President of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, pardoned Mansour, the authorities did not return his passport, which he de facto imposed a travel ban. He was also subjected to physical attacks, death threats and surveillance by the authorities using an advanced spy program.