News Desk

43 activists have been found guilty of terror offences by a court in the United Arab Emirates and given life sentences.

According to state media, the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal found the defendants guilty of “creating a terrorist organization”. The mass trial has been heavily criticized by United Nations experts and human rights groups.

More than 80 human rights defenders and political dissidents,the “UAE 84”, were put on trial, according to Human Rights Watch.

The UAE’s prosecutor general accused the defendants of “establishing another clandestine organization for the purpose of committing acts of violence and terrorism on UAE soil” at the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal, known as the “Justice and Dignity”. He said that the defendants were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is an Islamist movement that has been proclaimed a terrorist organization in the UAE since 2014. The Al-Islah party, its local affiliate, is also banned.

The Official WAM news agency said that the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal sentenced 43 defendants to imprisonment for life, for the crime of creating, establishing, and managing a “terrorist organization”.

According to WAM, aside from the 43 convicts handed life sentences, 10 other defendants were imprisoned for 10 to 15 years due to charges of collaborating with al-Islah, and money laundering. They acquitted one defendant and 24 cases were ruled inadmissible.

The defendants were in prison for more than a decade following the “UAE 94” trial in 2013, many of them having alreadycompleted their sentences, said the Amnesty International.

However, UAE authorities reported the current charges were differentiated from the previous one, relating to charges of supporting a terrorist organization included. The indictment, charges, defense lawyers and names of defendants were kept secret by the government, and the known details were only “leaks”