United Arab Emirates: Mass Trial of 41 Men Ends Amid Serious Fair Trial Concerns - URGENT ACTION
Amnesty International
Please write immediately in Arabic, English or your own language:
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Calling on the UAE authorities to ensure the convictions of the 34 men
are quashed and to order a retrial before an ordinary criminal court in
accordance with international fair trial standards, including the right
to appeal, and without recourse to the death penalty; adding that those
under 18 at the time of arrests should be retried in a court abiding by
international standards of juvenile justice;
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Calling on them to ensure that any “confessions” obtained by torture
and other ill-treatment are not used as evidence in court and that the
men are protected from any further ill-treatment; and calling on them to
order an independent and impartial investigation into the allegations
of torture, in line with the Istanbul protocol.
The trial of 41 men,
including 37 UAE nationals, two Iranians, one Syrian and one Comorian
before the State Security Chamber at the Federal Supreme Court, ended on
27 March. They were convicted of terrorism-related charges, including
establishing a group called the Shabab al-Manara (Minaret Youth Group)
in order to overthrow the UAE government and replace it with an
“ISIL-style caliphate” and smuggling weapons, ammunition and explosives
into the UAE with the aim of “endangering the security and safety and
the lives of people, including the leadership of the country”. The court
sentenced eleven men, including one who was a juvenile at the time of
his arrest and two men in their absence, to life imprisonment. The rest
of the group received varying lengths of sentence: two men were
sentenced to 15 years in jail; thirteen men to 10 years; two men, who
were under the age of 18 at the time of their arrest, were jailed for
five years; and seven men were sentenced to three years. The court also
acquitted seven men. The four foreign nationals will also be deported
after they serve their sentences. Those convicted have no right to
appeal their sentences.
Click here for more information about this URGENT ACTION.
