Abu Dhabi: The State Security Court at the Federal Supreme Court on Monday sentenced an Emirati man to 10 years in jail for joining terrorist group Al Nusra Front in Syria.

The court, presided over by Chief Justice Mohammad Jarrah Al Tunaiji, found 42-year-old Khalifa Thani Al Muhairi guilty of training and fighting with the terrorist group in Syria.

The court also sentenced a Kuwaiti politician, Mubarak Fahd Al Dowailah, in absentia, to five years in jail followed by deportation, for insulting the UAE leadership during a live interview on Kuwaiti TV channel Al Majlis.  

Similarly, Rifaat Khan Hussain, an Indian, was sentenced to three years in jail followed by deportation for spying for a foreign country.

Four other cases were adjourned to December 14 and 21.

Libya attack

The court also heard witnesses in a case in which a Libyan, M.M.H., was charged with joining the Libyan Dawn group in connection with last year’s attacks on the UAE embassy in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, leading to the departure of the UAE ambassador and the embassy staff.

A witness told the court the defendant had been wanted by Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and that he fled the country during the Libyan uprising that overthrew Gaddafi.
“The man lived in Tunisia for a while and then returned to Libya after Gaddafi was overthrown. He set up an armed group called Malek Company, which later joined Libyan Dawn group,” the court heard.

The witness told the court the defendant had arrived in the UAE two months before gunmen attacked the UAE embassy in Tripoli.

The court also heard the defendant did not commit any offence during his stay in the UAE and that there is no evidence that he had any connection with the attack on the UAE embassy in Tripoli.

The judge ordered the case to be adjourned to December 21. In the second case, in which four Emiratis were charged with an attempt to join the terrorist group Daesh, the court heard two witnesses, an officer and the father of a defendant. The officer told the court the four had been friends since they were students in the US. “They used to meet in a rented apartment where they watched videos about Daesh and promoted the terrorist ideology of Daesh among some Emirati students,” the officer said.

Daesh case

The officer told the court when the defendants returned home they tried to travel to Syria via Turkey, with the intention of joining the training camps of Daesh there.
Three of them were arrested while the fourth remained in Syria and fought with the terrorist group.

The father of a defendant dismissed the charges against his son and told the court his son had travelled to Turkey with a number of his friends, but he returned to the UAE the next day, or less than 24 hours after he arrived there.

The father added that he phoned his son and persuaded him to return. “My son returned and surrendered to the police,” the father said.
The case was adjourned to December 21 for the lawyers to present their defence.

Al Islah Group

In a third case, the lawyer of an Emirati defendant, M.S.M.A., charged with joining the terrorist group Al Islah, an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, told the court the defendant was as young as 10 when he used to attend lectures of Al Islah Group in Dubai.

“He was an innocent child who did not know the nature of the group or their ideology. His monthly donation of Dh25 was meant to buy books for the children’s library in the group’s Dubai premises. The defendant was only 14 years old when he was assigned to sell children’s books in Dubai Summer Surprises festival,” the lawyer said.

He added investigations revealed no evidence that the defendant committed any crime against the country or its regime.

The court adjourned the case to December 14.

In the final case, Ali Al Manna’i, who is defending an Emirati doctor, M.T.S.M., accused of joining Al Islah, said the prosecution had accused his client of joining the group on March 31, 2014 even though the organisation was reportedly dissolved and annulled in case number 79 of 2012.

The lawyer asked for his client’s acquittal and the case has been postponed to December 14 for the verdict.

Defendant’s mother falls ill

The mother of one of the defendants, Abdullah Saeed Al Danhani, 27, who was found guilty of making slanderous comments and defaming the UAE via social media channels, fell to the ground following the verdict against her son. An ambulance had to rush her to the hospital.

Al Danhani, an Emirati, was sentenced to five years in jail and fined Dh1 million for insulting UAE leaders on social media.