On 28 August 2014, Alaradi was with his family at the Atlantis Palm Jumaira Hotel in Dubai, when Security Service officers called him in the lobby to "ask him questions." When Alaradi arrived in the hotel's lobby, the officers dressed in civilian clothes, arrested him without a warrant and took him to an unknown location. For 130 days, Alaradi was detained incommunicado and was subjected to severe torture. After this period, he was allowed to call his family once for three minutes while being monitored. He was later allowed two more monitored phone calls to his family, on 4 January 2015 and on 15 March 2015. On 11 February 2015, his wife was allowed to visit him for one hour and saw clear marks of torture on his body.

According to Alaradi's brother – who was arrested on the same day, but released four months later – Salim was subjected to extensive hours of interrogation without access to a lawyer. Alaradi's family also affirms that he was subjected to long periods of interrogation while being sleep-deprived. Today, Alaradi suffers from serious health conditions, some pre-existent and others due to the prison conditions and torture; however, despite numerous requests from Canadian authorities, he kept on being denied medical care until 18 May 2015, when a single medical visit was allowed. Alaradi's family, especially his daughter Marwa, continues to ask for his release through an online campaign, to no avail. "Every day that passes without our father seems like years. All we can think about is his situation, his health, how he is being treated, and that haunts us all," Marwa said.

Alaradi is currently detained without charges at the Wathba Prison, about 40 minutes outside Abu Dhabi, where he was transferred on 4 January 2015. Although the Canadian Mission in the UAE provided his family with an extensive list of lawyers, none of them accepted to provide legal counsel out of fear of reprisals for dealing with cases of detention by the UAE security services. In this regard, after her visit to the UAE in January and February 2014, the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (SR IJL) Gabriela Knaul, had expressed deep concern over "reports that some lawyers who take up cases related to State security have been harassed, threatened and had pressure exerted on them, including through constant surveillance, public campaigns of defamation, and the arbitrary deportation of non-national lawyers."

In view of these facts, Alkarama requested the Working Group to recognise the arbitrary nature of Alaradi's detention and to request the Emirati authorities to release him immediately.

Considering the systematic use of torture and secret detention in the UAE, which was observed by the Special Rapporteur in her report, Alkarama calls on the Emirati authorities to:
• Put an end to the practice of torture in detention centres and systematic use of secret or incommunicado detention;
• Put an end to arbitrary detentions conducted without any trial or following unfair trials;
• Ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Enforced Disappearances (CED).

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