A protester holds the portrait of imprisoned UAE activist Mohammed al-Siddiq during a protest at COP28 in Dubai on Dec 9, 2023. He is among 84 human rights defenders in the UAE undergoing a mass trial on terrorism charges (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)
By UCA News reporter
Feb 8 2024
Global rights group Amnesty International has accused the United Arab Emirates of violating the fair trial rights of 84 human rights defenders, many of whom are undergoing a mass re-trial on terrorism charges.
The 84 Emiratis facing trial have been accused of establishing a “clandestine organization” for “terrorism,” Amnesty said in a Feb 5 press statement alleging “multiple gross violations of the defendants’ fair trial rights.”
The ongoing hearing is a “politically motivated prosecution” which can well be called “mockery of justice,” said Aya Majzoub, Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North.
“The UAE is making a mockery of justice by trying scores of defendants on undefined charges under an indictment that has so far been kept secret,” Majzoub said.
“Until a month ago, the UAE did not even acknowledge the trial was taking place, despite the first hearing of this politically motivated prosecution taking place during COP28 in an unabashed show of repression,” Majzoub said.
Amnesty accused the UAE government of directing witness testimony and failing to disclose the exact charges or what articles of the law are being used to bring the charges.
The UAE authorities had barred defense lawyers from sharing documents related to the case with the defendants and their families and have also banned family members from attending hearings during the trial, reports say.
The trial began on Dec 7, last year, with at least 65 of the 84 defendants being arbitrarily held, Amnesty said.
Of these 65 defendants, 62 were among 94 convicted in 2012-2013 for their links to the Da’wat Al Islah Association (Association for Reform and Guidance) which had operated legally in the country since 1974.
The association had never been designated as unlawful until the arrests of people linked to it began in April 2011, Switzerland-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said in a 2013 report.
The 94 accused at that time included lawyers, judges, prosecutors, human rights defenders, and political activists.
Prosecutors had accused them of establishing and managing an organization aiming to harm state security, oppose the constitution and the basic principles of the UAE ruling system, and having links and affiliations to organizations with foreign agendas, the ICJ said.
Amnesty alleged that the details of the current trial were announced by the official WAM news agency on Jan 6.
Doctor Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, UAE’s Attorney General, had referred the 84 accused to the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal (State Security Court) for trial.
The defendants were charged with establishing the Muslim Brotherhood in UAE to commit acts of violence and terrorism.
Amnesty said the charges, which appear to have been brought under the 2014 counterterrorism law are based on alleged membership of the Da’wat Al Islah Association’s Justice and Dignity Committee.
“Any involvement by defendants… would have ceased when they were arrested in 2012-2013 before the 2014 counterterrorism law was enacted,” Amnesty said.
Some of the family members said they were unable to attend the trial as the authorities had refused to renew their identification cards which are necessary to attend the proceedings.
“Nobody has read the court files. Nobody has seen them. We’re forbidden from attending. And the attorneys are under strict orders not to cooperate with the prisoners or their families, and not to give them full, transparent information,” a family member of one of the defendants said.
Majzoub said the court proceedings showed an “outrageous disregard for fair trial rights.”
“In one case, at a hearing on Jan 11, the authorities handed a prosecution witness a piece of paper from which they proceeded to read from to answer the judge’s questions,” Majzoub said.
“This is a grotesque parody of justice in every possible way by a government that claims to represent international progress and development,” he said. – UCA News
