AI denounces that an Emirati court has convicted 84 people in a massive macro trial

10 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Amnesty International (AI) has denounced that an Emirati court has convicted 84 people on terrorism charges, including 40 to life imprisonment, in a macro-trial that exemplifies the “horrible human rights abuses” perpetrated by the United Arab Emirates” despite its “progressive facade.”

AI researcher in the UAE, Devin Kenney, has called the trial a “blatant travesty” for “violating multiple fundamental principles of law”, including not trying the same person twice for the same crime or failing to punish people under laws that did not exist at the time of the alleged offence.

“Trying 84 Emiratis at once, including 26 prisoners of conscience and well-known human rights defenders, is an almost undisguised exercise in punishing dissidents that has been further marred by a myriad of violations relating to the right to a fair trial,” he stressed.

Among the violations, Kenney cited allegations of torture, which have not been investigated, and other ill-treatment. “The defendants have been held in prolonged solitary confinement, deprived of contact with their families and lawyers and also deprived of sleep through exposure to loud music,” he added.

He also warned that neither lawyers nor family members have been allowed to see the most basic court documents, while they have had to pay “exorbitant fees” in trials that constitute “a mockery of the rule of law.”

Emirati authorities in January charged 84 people with terrorism shortly after the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) last year. AI has reported that 34 of the defendants signed a petition calling for more democracy in the country in March 2011.

This comes after Emirati Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shams indicted 84 alleged members of the Justice and Dignity Commission — an offshoot of the Al Islam movement, considered the Emirati version of the Muslim Brotherhood — for belonging to “a clandestine organisation to commit acts of terrorism”.

The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the world’s largest Muslim organizations, was declared a terrorist organization in 2014 by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, followed by Bahrain and Egypt.

In 2013, the United Arab Emirates tried 94 activists, lawyers, students, teachers and other critics of the government, accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, in a process criticised by humanitarian organisations as an excuse to orchestrate political persecution.