After five months in solitary confinement, his final court appearance lasted barely five minutes. On November 21, a court in Abu Dhabi convicted a British academic of espionage and sentenced him to life in prison. Matthew Hedges (31), a doctoral candidate at Durham University, travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) early last year to study its internal security policies. He became an unwilling participant in his own research in May, when police arrested him at Dubai’s airport.

The UAE government hasn’t offered a shred of evidence, nor even named the country for which Hedges was supposedly spying. But the case is thought to be connected to neighbouring Qatar, which the UAE and three other Arab states have kept under an 18-month embargo. Hedges’ wife says he wasn’t allowed access to a lawyer until mid-October, and that his appointed counsel doesn’t speak fluent English. He was also allegedly made to sign a confession in Arabic, which he does not read. He has 30 days to appeal the verdict.

With its ‘happiness ministry’ and tourist attractions, the UAE presents itself as a cheerful, cosmopolitan corner of the Gulf. It has also built a vast surveillance state to keep tabs on citizens and visitors. Government critics and human-rights activists have received long jail terms for social media posts. The climate grew even more repressive last year. “Showing sympathy” to Qatar is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a 500,000 dirham (Rs.1 crore) fine.

In 2010, New York University (NYU) started offering classes in Abu Dhabi, one of several Western universities to inaugurate campuses in the region. Administrators promised the same freedoms as its American parent. Academics say otherwise. Andrew Ross, an NYU professor who has criticised labour practices in the Emirates, was barred from travelling to the country in 2015. The UAE is not alone in this practice: a graduate student doing similar research at Georgetown University, which has a campus in Doha, was denied a visa by Qatar last year.

Cultural institutions steer clear of controversy. Booksellers in Dubai’s shiny malls do not have politics sections. Professors of English literature might see parallels with the sort of happiness Aldous Huxley satirised in Brave New World (1932). But they would do well not to make that comparison in the UAE.

(Excerpted and adapted from The Economist and Times Higher Education)