clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

UAE jails 3 men for involvement in ‘banned secret’ groups

November 15, 2016 at 9:40 pm

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Federal Supreme Court [alarabiya]

A court in the United Arab Emirates yesterday jailed two citizens of the Gulf Arab state to 10 and seven years in jail for membership of a “banned secret organisation”, state news agency WAM reported.

In a separate case, the court sentenced a man from another Arab state to three years for writing slogans and drawing on walls in support of “a terrorist organisation” and writing offensive statements against state officials, it said.

The agency did not identify the men or the organisations, but the UAE has been pursuing a crackdown on Islamists it accuses of trying to destabilise it.

In the first case, the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi convicted one man of holding a senior position in the “banned secret organisation” and sentenced him to 10 years. It jailed the second for seven years for belonging to the same organisation, running one of its UAE offices and promoting its views.

The UAE has banned several Islamist groups, including Al-Islah, which is suspected of being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2013, the UAE convicted dozens of Islamists, many of them suspected of belonging to Al-Islah, on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, in a hearing criticised by rights groups.