<div><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The UAE is to put 84 people on trial for terror-related offences, state media said today, a decade after a similar mass trial of government critics.</span><br></b></div><div><br></div><div>The Gulf state’s attorney-general ordered the trial of “mostly members of the terrorist organisation of (the) Muslim Brotherhood”, official news agency WAM said.</div><div><br></div><div>In 2013, the UAE tried 94 activists, lawyers, students, teachers and other government critics, accusing them of membership of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.</div><div><br></div><div>Rights groups denounced the proceedings at the time.</div><div><br></div><div>The trials resulted in jail time for 69 people, many of whom remain in prison.</div><div><br></div><div>According to WAM, at least some of them are to be charged in the new trial.</div><div><br></div><div>The defendants are accused of “establishing another clandestine organisation for the purpose of committing acts of violence and terrorism on UAE soil”, the news agency said.</div><div><br></div><div>“The defendants had concealed this crime and its evidence before they were arrested and tried” in 2013, it added.</div><div><br></div><div>A six-month investigation uncovered “sufficient evidence” for the attorney-general to pursue the new trial, WAM said.</div><div><br></div><div>Human Rights Watch said in December that the defendants were being persecuted “in retaliation for forming an independent advocacy group in 2010”.</div><div><br></div><div>According to the New York-based rights group, charges were also brought against other imprisoned dissidents including human rights campaigner Ahmed Mansour.</div><div><br></div><div>He was sentenced in 2018 to 10 years in prison for criticising the government and tarnishing the country’s image on social media.</div><div><br></div><div>“Levelling new charges based on peaceful advocacy over a decade ago seems nothing more than a shameless pretext to keep these men behind bars,” said HRW’s deputy regional director Michael Page.</div><div><br></div><div>Emirati authorities said today that the defendants had been given legal representation, and that the state security court had “begun hearing witnesses and the public trial procedures are ongoing”. - AFP</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>