The president of the United Arab Emirates has pardoned 57 Bangladeshi citizens jailed for holding protests in the Gulf country against their own government.

The decision, announced on Tuesday, by President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan “cancels” the sentences of the Bangladeshi nationals, state news agency WAM reported.

They will be released and deported, the report said.

Bangladesh’s Sangbad Sangstha news agency, citing a presidential adviser, said all 57 are expected to return home soon.

‘Arbitrarily convicted’

The Bangladeshi expatriates were accused of joining protests in the UAE that mirrored the mass demonstrations against the then prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her government in their home country.

A federal court in the UAE, which bans unauthorised protests, swiftly convicted the Bangladeshis in July of “gathering and inciting riots”.

The prosecution had charged them with “crimes of gathering in a public place and protesting against their home government with the intent to incite unrest”.

Three people received life sentences and 53 were sentenced to 10 years in prison. One Bangladeshi, who state media said had entered the UAE illegally and “participated in the riot”, was sentenced to 11 years.

Human Rights Watch described them as being “arbitrarily detained, convicted and sentenced to long prison terms … based on their participation in peaceful demonstrations”.

Sheikh Mohamed’s move to pardon the prisoners comes less than a week after he spoke with Bangladesh’s new interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, who took over after Hasina was toppled from power and fled to India amid last month’s protests

That unrest in Bangladesh began in June with student-led protests against civil service job quotas. It escalated into mass demonstrations calling for Hasina, who had been in power since 2009, to quit.

Bangladeshis form the third biggest expatriate group in the country, after Pakistanis and Indians, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Most of the population in the country of some 10 million people are foreign residents.

Many Bangladeshis in the UAE work in low-paid blue-collar jobs and send remittances home to help support their families.

The UAE has little tolerance for dissent as it prohibits criticism of rulers or speech deemed to create or encourage social unrest. Freedom of expression is restricted.

The country’s penal code also criminalises offending foreign states or jeopardising ties with them.