Dubai: Little was known in this country about what has transpired as an amazing web of links and collaboration between the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliated groups in the UAE and other Arab states.

But the trial of 94 Emiratis, which concluded yesterday with conviction of 69 defendants of being members of a clandestine group that plotted to undermine security and seize power, revealed a vast political, ideological and financial network led by the Muslim Brotherhood main front, the Europe Trust, led by senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Ahmed Al Rawi.

According to documents obtained by Gulf News yesterday, investigators have concluded that “ the Muslim Brotherhood has a global footprint, with the UK and Ireland serving as important hubs for international Muslim Brotherhood leadership activity.”

They also said that “members of the UAE branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Islah [whose members have been among those convicted in Abu Dhabi yesterday] are active in Muslim Brotherhood networks in the UK and Ireland.”

“Entities affiliated with Al Eslah in the UAE and the UK have been tied to global terrorist support activity, as identified publicly by U.S and other counterterrorism authorities,” one document said.

The documents also explain a long history of shadowy activities and links led by exiled Muslim Brotherhood leaders who had escaped their homelands and found safe havens in the UK and Europe to lead and propagate the Brotherhood’s cross-border activities.

In the Gulf, officials have always warned of the Brotherhood threat as the group doesn’t recognize modern state sovereignty and prevailing laws.

At a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, in Abu Dhabi on October 12, 2012, UAE Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan denounced the Brotherhood as “an organisation which encroaches upon sovereignty and integrity of nations”.

“The Muslim Brotherhood’s thinking does not recognise borders or sovereignty of nations. So, it is not unusual that the international Brotherhood organisation works to make inroads upon sovereignty and laws of countries,” he added.

The court documents show how money was channeled from different charities in the UAE, run by some of the Islah members, to the Europe Trust though a complicated web of intermediate companies and institutions.