UAE court jails 30 over ties to Muslim Brotherhood
By Ahmed Hashem and Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
21.01.2014
Abu Dhabi (dpa) - A court in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday jailed 20 Egyptians and 10 locals convicted on charges of setting up a Muslim Brotherhood branch in the country.
Prosecutors said the group had recruited members and collected money in an attempt to support the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt.
The 30 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three months to five years. They have no right to appeal.
Most of the group was arrested more than a year ago and put on trial in November, with six of the Egyptians tried in absentia. The defendants all denied the charges.
Amnesty International described the trial as "grossly unfair" saying UAE authorities had tortured the suspects and denied them access to lawyers for months.
The Britain-based Emirates Centre for Human Rights said the charges were "ambiguous."
"In the absence of a proper legal process and an investigation into credible allegations of torture, these convictions lack all credibility," the centre's director Rori Donaghy said.
"Authorities must end their crackdown against peaceful political activists by upholding their commitment to protecting the human rights of all who live in the UAE."
Prominent Emirati activist Saleh al-Dhufeiri was among those convicted, sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Amnesty International has called for his release, saying it considers al-Dhufeiri a prisoner of conscience.
The 10 UAE nationals are already serving prison sentences of up to 10 years, after being convicted of sedition in a separate trial last year. They were among 68 Emiratis sentenced in July for plotting to overthrow the government.
Many of those accused were members of the al-Islah group, which UAE authorities say is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Tensions between Cairo and Abu Dhabi heightened during the rule of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, who dispatched a delegation early last year to negotiate the release of the Egyptian prisoners. The Emirati government rejected the request.
