Abu Dhabi: Two Yemenis were sentenced in absentia to life in prison for belonging to Al Qaida in Yemen, the Federal Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

According to UAE law, defendants sentenced in absentia are granted a retrial when and if they appear in court.

The men were part of a group of 21 Yemenis and two Emiratis accused of joining an international terrorist organisation. Court documents did not list any plans the men had to commit acts of terror in the country.

Twelve others, charged with forging immigration documents, were sentenced to three years in jail.

“The defendants tried to bypass entry-exit laws of the country,” prosecutors had said.

Nine others, including two Emiratis, were cleared of all charges.

The court heard defence arguments from lawyers who maintained their clients’ innocence.

In previous hearings the court heard arguments from the public prosecutor who demanded that the accused be punished for the charges, while the defendants denied all the charges.

In another case, Omaran Hassan Ahmad Al Raisi and Omran Mubarak Mabkhout Al Kitbi, both Emiratis, who were accused of attempting to join and contact terrorist organisations, were ordered to be sent to conselling centres. The men were also banned from travelling for six months and will be subjected to surveillance.

Emirati teenager Mouza Mohammad Saeed Al Abdouli, 18, charged with insulting the UAE on social media, was ordered to be handed over to a guardian. The court also ordered her accounts on Facebook and Twitter be shut down.

An Emirati accused of mocking the Federal National Council in an online video gets a retrial.

The defendant is charged with insulting FNC candidates and their campaigns for last year’s election.

The Public Prosecution has reiterated that the UAE’s penal code protects freedom of opinion as long as it does not breach limitations of morality and religion.

It has also warned the public against producing any form of print, audio or visual expression that harms society.

The court also adjourned the hearing of agents of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, charged with setting up a terrorist Hezbollah cell in the UAE in association with agents of the Lebanon-based terrorist Hezbollah group to June 6.

A prosecution witness told the Federal Supreme Court the sleeper cell had worked in the UAE since 2004 until it was busted in 2013, when it turned active.

“The terrorist cell used sex and alcohol to recruit a group of agents including H.A.S.H., an Emirati who communicated classified information to Hezbollah spies,” the witness told the court.

The witness added the defendant passed on information about government, security, military and economic institutions as well as UAE’s arms deals with various countries to the Hezbollah agents.

American woman charged with insulting UAE in public cleared

An American woman was cleared of charges of insulting the UAE, the Federal Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The 25-year-old, who underwent a psychological evaluation, was found not guilty of insulting the country and its leaders through verbal assault, based on a medical report issued by Shaikh Khalifa Medical City, arguing that the defendant was not criminally responsible for her acts at the time of the crime.

The court, however, ordered her to be deported.

The woman was charged with insulting the country and its leaders through verbal assault.

The judge had told the defendant that she caused a scene at Abu Dhabi airport and insulted the country and its leaders in public, which she denied.

The woman said she had been waiting for a taxi when two men approached her and did not like the way she spoke to them.

In March, a man was sentenced to jail and fined by the Federal Supreme Court after he was found guilty of insulting the country on messaging service WhatsApp.

The citizen of a GGC member country, S.M.S., was charged with “disseminating information with a view to ridiculing and damaging the reputation of the state’s symbols”. He also allegedly ridiculed Emirati soldiers killed in Yemen, describing them as “cowards” on WhatsApp.

The man was sentenced to three years in prison and fined Dh50,000. He will be deported after serving his jail term.

In 2013, an American citizen was also sentenced to a year in jail and fined Dh10,000 for posting a parody video about the UAE on YouTube.

In another case, the court cleared four Libyans on charges of providing support to terrorist groups the Libyan Dawn Militia and the February 17th Brigade.

Libyan Kamal Ahmad Al Darrat, 55, and his son, Mohammad Kamal Al Darrat, 34, both American citizens, Salim  Abdullah Mohammad, 47, and Eisa Omran Mohammad, 66, both from Libya, were found not guilty of providing financial support to the two organisations who follow the Muslim Brotherhood according to court documents.