53 members of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organization were arrested and prosecuted by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeals State Security Division and Justice and Dignity Organization and six companies were convicted for all the cases. This included life imprisonment to fines of up to Dh20 million as passed by the court before giving them the appropriate penalties.
Comprising the Nigerian Defence for the aforementioned crime, forty-three of the defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment; they were said to have been involved in the formation of the Justice and Dignity Organisation as well as founding and managing it with the callous intention of engaging in terrorist acts within the state.
Five defendants who were booked for relating with the illegal Reform Call Organization committed to publishing articles and tweets against the government were handed fifteen years imprisonment.
Five other individuals were given similar jail terms of 10-years and required to pay a fine of Dh10, 000, 000 each for money laundering offences concerning proceeds of terrorism in the form of operating, setting up and funding a terrorist group.
Furthermore, six firms and their directors were penalised Dh20 million each, and requested to deregister and shut down their operations and ultimately, have their funds, properties, as well as the materials that participated in the crimes of money laundering by an organised criminal group, and employing the proceeds to finance a terrorist organisation.
The criminal cases against 24 defendants for their conspiracy with the Reform Call Organization and financially supporting it were also dropped and one of the defendants was cleared of all the charges.
However, it is pertinent to note that this decision is made and is still appellate before the Federal Supreme Court.
Court rationale
When presenting their rationale, the court stressed that the crime of creation, foundation, and management of the Justice and Dignity Organization, is a crime that is separate from the crime that was considered in the previous case connected to state security. From confessions and statements of several defendants, witness testimonies, and technical reports available in the case, the guilt of the defendants could was proved properly.
The court was sure that the defendants, participants of the Reform Call Organization (Muslim Brotherhood) as a terrorist group tried to stage raise events in the state similar to the Arab countries’ ones, including demonstrations, strike with the security forces, officers and civilians’ losses and destruction of property.
These actions were to help foster the proclamations of fear, envision a looming crisis that poses a risk to societal order and state security, and put at risk any human and property.
The court considered the case at more than 10 meetings, providing all the legal rights and guarantees to the defendants, including the right to choose the lawyers; the appointment of the lawyers for the defendants who did not have the right to choose; considering the defendants’ arguments at the meeting, as well as written statements.
This allowed defendants to cross-examine the witnesses in public sittings as a number of prosecutions were conducted before juries.