The United Arab Emirates has launched a trial of 84 people on charges of establishing a "clandestine organization for the purpose of committing acts of violence and terrorism," the UAE's WAM news agency reported on Saturday, with human rights organizations warning that many political prisoners are among the accused.
According to WAM, Dr. Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, the UAE's attorney general, referred 84 defendants to the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal for trial. The state news agency reported that most of the defendants are members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The 84 were all previously arrested and imprisoned in a case commonly known as the UAE 94. The defendants include human rights activists and critics of the Emirati government such as Ahmed Mansoor, Nasser bin Ghaith, Some of the defendants were affiliated with Al Islah, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood accused of attempting a coup in the UAE in 2012.
The case was first reported by the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC) in mid-December during the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), although it was only confirmed officially by the UAE on Saturday.
UN condemns repeat trials
Shortly after the case came to light in December, Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, condemned the opening of the trial saying "I received very disturbing information that human rights defenders Mohamed Abdullah Al-Roken, Salim Al-Shahhi, Hadef Rashid Al-Oweis, Mohamed Al-Mansoori and Ali Saeed Al-Kindi, already in detention on baseless sentences which had expired, are now facing new charges almost identical to those originally brought against them."
“This is a shameful act while the UAE is hosting the UN climate change conference,” said Lawlor.
“These human rights defenders have had no contact with their families since early June and no visits for over two years,” added the UN official. “What we are now seeing is that they are being 'recycled' in the prison system, with the State seeking to see them cut off from society indefinitely.”
During COP28, a small group of demonstrators staged a very rare protest in Dubai to demand the release of pro-democracy activists imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
About 25 activists took part in the protest, holding up pictures of Emirati prisoners Ahmed Mansoor and Mohamed al-Siddiq and Egyptian-British political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah.
Human Rights Watch described the protest as historic for taking place in the UAE, which tolerates little public dissent and bans organized groups such as political parties and labor unions.
Reuters contributed to this report.