New Delhi: A court in the United Arab Emirates Wednesday convicted 53 defendants after finding them guilty of terror offences, with punishments ranging from fines of up to AED 20 million ($5.4 million) to life imprisonment.
The defendants, according to local media, are leaders or members of the religiopolitical outfit Muslim Brotherhood, which was designated as a terrorist organisation by the UAE in 2014.
According to state-owned news agency WAM, 43 defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for creating, establishing and managing the terrorist organisation ‘Justice and Dignity Committee’ with the aim of committing terrorist acts in the country.
Of the 10 remaining defendants, five were sentenced to 15 years in prison “for cooperating with the organisation ‘Reform Call’, fully aware of its purpose to act against the UAE”, while five others were sentenced to 10 years in prison with fines of AED 10 million for “laundering money for terrorist organisations”, the agency said.
The Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court further handed fines of AED 20 million to six companies, along with dissolving them and confiscating their assets, “for aiding and abetting the laundering of money for terrorist organisations”, it reported.
The court dismissed criminal cases against 24 defendants, while acquitting one. The cases were heard over 10 hearings, and included witness testimonies at public hearings.
According to international human rights organisations, the trial for over 80 defendants was first announced in December 2023.
On 6 January, 2024, the Attorney General of the UAE decided to refer 84 defendants – mostly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to WAM – to the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeals Court.
The mass trial of the 84 defendants is the second largest in the history of the UAE, after the “UAE94” mass trial of 94 individuals in 2013, Human Rights Watch said.
A number of the defendants convicted Wednesday had already been convicted in the 2013 trials or were in Emirati prisons for different cases, it said.
The court in a statement emphasised that the new charges are distinctly different from the earlier charges, thereby following the principle of “double jeopardy” – which prohibits charging an individual for the same crime more than once.
Many individuals convicted in 2013 had already completed their sentences, according to Human Rights Watch.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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