Abu Dhabi: ‏Five GCC nationals, including a lieutenant, are accused of setting up a website that mocks the UAE’s leaders, the State Security Court heard on Monday.

Of these, only the klieutenant, H.A.H., attended the session. The four other defendants have been summoned but foreign authorities have not responded to the UAE Embassy in the neighbouring country as yet.

The men are believed to have published libellous images of the UAE’s leaders containing false information. The Public Prosecutor at the State Security Court said that the accused, all of whom are security officials in their home country, had entered the UAE several times and purchased mobile phones and SIM cards from telecommunications company etisalat, to use in uploading the libellous information on their website.

“The foreign security authority had even sent one of its agents to the UAE through the Ghuwaifat port before he purchased five etisalat SIM cards for five individual phones for a total of Dh25,000. He filled up the phones with credit, then left the country the same day through the same port,” the prosecution said.

The plaintiff then showed the court a film showing the defendant with a number of UAE prosecution officials in the Ghuwaifat area where he confessed that the assistant to the head of the security authority in the GCC country supervised the purchase of the phones and setting up the website in addition to uploading the false information from the mobile phones on the internet.

The etisalat-purchased phone number was even placed on the website to communicate with those who runn the site through WhatsApp and messages and to help them in sharing the falsified pictures that defame the UAE’s leaders and its symbols.

At the end of the session, presiding judge Falah Al Hajeri allowed the only defendant present to explain the events that took place in the film. Here, he confessed again before the court that he had been assigned by a GCC country’s security authorities to head to the UAE and purchase the mobile phones and to fill them with Dh5,000 in credit for each SIM card before returning to his country.

The defence lawyer requested a postponement of the session to look at the investigation files and other documents pertaining to the case. The judge then adjourned the hearing until April 27.

In a second case, an Arab man was accused of providing intelligence to security authorities in his country and importing electronic chips to be used for military purposes. He is also believed to have forged documents and imported audio analytical devices that are prohibited.

His lawyer insisted on his client’s innocence since he did not know the true nature of the devices he was importing. The lawyer added that the defendant did not cause any damage in the relations between the UAE and the USA or China, where the items were imported from, and that he did not use UAE soil to store the devices because he was exporting them through ships directly to the Studies and Research Centre in his home country.

The Arab man also requested that he not be deported in case he was found guilty as his own life and his family’s lives are in danger because he is wanted by the authorities in his home country.

The verdict will be announced in May 25.