Agree with Lucille (except the last sentence!). While I have a lot of sympathy for this chap and his predicament, there are two elements in this case which puzzle me. Firstly, his parents lived in Dubai for a number of years, he reportedly grew up in, and attended school in, the UAE for at least some time, and he subsequently worked in the UAE. Anyone with this this background would without doubt be aware of the attitude of the authorities to political, military, police, and security matters. Secondly, bearing in mind the first point, why on earth did he (or his University) not approach the authorities, explain what he wanted to do, tell them in broad terms what sort of questions he would be asking, and get their written permission to carry out his research? It would also have been sensible to tell the local British Embassy what he was up to and sought their advice - I'm sure the resident "spook" would have given some sound guidance! At PhD level, the depth of questions he would have been asking would undoubtedly have raised some local eyebrows and drawn attention to his activities. The mere mention of the Muslim Brotherhood would have been sufficient to attract attention to his research. I would argue that his PhD supervisors failed in their 'duty of care' by not ensuring that this was done, but also that he was naive in the extreme by not doing it himself. For these reasons, I'm not absolutely convinced that he wasn't also acting in some capacity other than simple PhD research.
Just for the record, before my aviation career I did a lot of commercial research - some of it sensitive in nature - in an assortment of dodgy places - including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan. In all cases we advised the authorities and the local Embassy, secured their permission in the form of a letter from the local Interior Ministries, and armed with that, never experienced any problems. In fact it helped open doors which would otherwise have remained tightly shut. The closest I ever came to being arrested for espionage was actually in UK, where I was escorted off the premises of a major defence contractor who had alerted the security services - so its not just in "totalitarian" countries that one has to be very careful.
Having said all that, I hope he's home in time for Christmas, having learned something about how not to carry out research in places which have a radically different attitude and penal system from his home country.
7B