More than 40 activists jailed for life in UAE for ‘terror’ offences
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced 43 activists to life imprisonment for alleged terror offenses. According to state media reports, the court found them guilty of forming a terrorist organization.
The trial, which involved over 80 human rights defenders and political dissidents known as the “UAE 84,” has drawn strong criticism from United Nations experts and human rights organizations.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted that the defendants were accused of establishing a clandestine organization, the “Justice and Dignity Committee,” purportedly for carrying out violent and terrorist acts within the UAE.
Most of the accused were reportedly affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group banned as a terrorist organization in the UAE since 2014, along with its local branch, the al-Islah party.
In addition to the 43 life sentences handed out, 10 other defendants were jailed for 10 to 15 years in prison on the charges of “co-operating with al-Islah” and money laundering, WAM said.
One defendant was acquitted and 24 cases were ruled inadmissible, it added.
The bulk of the defendants have been in prison for more than a decade after they were jailed as part of the “UAE 94” trial in 2013, according to HRW and Amnesty International.
Many had already completed their sentences.
But UAE authorities said the latest charges were “materially distinct” from those brought in 2013, which did not include accusations of financing a “terrorist organisation”, AFP news agency reported.
According to Amnesty International, the indictment, charges, defence lawyers and names of defendants were “kept secret by the government”.
It said details were only known through “leaks”.
HRW identified three of those sentenced to life in prison were Nasser bin Ghaith, Abdulsalam Darwish al-Marzouqi and Sultan Bin Kayed al-Qasimi. Prominent activist Ahmed Mansoor was among the defendants, it added.
Reacting to the sentencings, Amnesty International’s Devin Kenney urged the UAE to “urgently revoke this unlawful verdict” and called on those sentenced to be released.
“The trial has been a shameless parody of justice and violated multiple fundamental principles of law, including the principle that you cannot try the same person twice for the same crime, and the principle that you cannot punish people retroactively under laws that didn’t exist at the time of the alleged offence.”
Khalid Ibrahim of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, on whose board Ahmed Mansoor sits, said: “It is a real tragedy that so many activists and human rights defenders will remain in prison for decades, deprived of watching their children grow up, for no other reason than calling for a better future for Emiratis.”
Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the Middle East and promoting high-tech sectors and innovations, the UAE remains restrictive on political activity.
The federation of seven emirates, which include Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has no official opposition and bans political parties.
In 2013, almost 70 Islamists were given jail sentences over an alleged plot to overthrow the government.
