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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