Oman court sentences five UAE citizens to prison for spying

The Omani Criminal Court has sentences five Emiratis and one Omani to varying prison terms after convicting them of spying, journalist Mokhtar Al-Hinaie said on Twitter.

“A majority of the defendants were sentenced to ten years imprisonment. There may have been harsher sentences that I did not know about because of the secrecy of the hearings. The defendants were tried separately on charges of spying in peacetime,” Al-Hinaie said.

Last week, the SkyLine International Foundation said the UAE has carried out a large-scale espionage operation which threatens the privacy of individuals and communities around the world.

Last month, Omani Foreign Minister, Yousuf Bin Alawi announced that his country has arrested a spy cell whose members were being tried before local courts.

The minister said at the time that the espionage cell spied on behalf of a neighbouring country which he did not name, adding that “such things happen between neighbours”.

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