Abu Dhabi: Five Emiratis and an Afghan received jail terms of up to four years for funding and supporting terrorist activities, a court ruled on Tuesday.
The Federal Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice Falah Al Hajiri, acquitted two other Emiratis of the charges. The ruling, the first against Emirati terror suspects, is final.
The men were arrested during raids in Khor Fakkan in October 2008, and the State Security Public Prosecution charged them with funnelling money to the Taliban and attempting to set up an organisation to enforce a strict code of Islam.
Rashid Dawood and Abdullah Hassan were jailed three years for gathering funds for the Taliban and an additional year for helping to found the fundamentalist group, which the court said attacked civil liberties.
Rashid Mohammad Sulaiman Al Naqbi, Badr Juma'a Al Mansouri, Marwan Al Naqbi, all Emiratis, and Abdul Wahab Sultan Gulam, an Afghan, were sentenced to three years in jail for funding Taliban. Saleh Al Naqbi and Ya'aqoob Salem Al Mansouri were acquitted of the charges.
Not guilty plea
The suspects had pleaded not guilty and refuted the charges arguing that the evidence was uncorroborated. They also told the court they had been coerced into signing confessions.
Rashid Dawood was found guilty of punishing a Bangladeshi man for speaking to a woman on the phone, court records showed. He was also charged with hitting the man severely and taking pictures of him on his phone.
Dawood earlier denied the charges, which included events alleged to have taken place more than a year before his arrest.
The Afghan defendant, who the public prosecution said was given the money from members of the group to channel it to Afghanistan, also got three years in jail.
Two defendants were accused of downloading "military training videos" and showing them to members of the group, according to the court records.
