Abu Dhabi: A total of 23 men were on Monday charged at the Federal Supreme Court with joining Al Qaida. Some of the men are also being charged with forging immigration documents.

The suspects — 21 Yemenis and two Emiratis — were accused of joining the terrorist organisation by the Public Prosecutor.

Five Yemeni defendants were also charged with conspiring to forge official immigration documents belonging to the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs.

“The five defendants tried to bypass entry/exit laws of the country,” said the public prosecutor.

Two defendants, S.S.T., 61, and Q.A.Q., 20, both from Yemen, are also being charged of co-conspiring with five other defendants to forge the immigration’s official documents.

Two suspects are bring tried in absentia.

The case was adjourned to March 28 for lawyers to prepare their defence.

In the second case, an Omani man appeared in court for allegedly writing ‘Daesh’ on a coffee shop’s feedback card. He blamed his bad handwriting for getting him into trouble with the authorities. He said he mistakenly wrote the word ‘DAESH’!

K.G., who is on trial at the Federal Supreme Court, told judges his nickname is similar to Daesh when written in Arabic.

“I signed the card ‘Raesh’ not ‘Daesh’, Your Honour,” the 24-year-old told the presiding judge.

K.G, who is currently out on bail, told the judge that Raesh was his nickname and that it had been confused with the common Arabic name for the terrorist organisation.

“All my friends know me as Raesh,” said K. G., who explained that he takes muscle growth hormones and supplements which cause him to have convulsions. As a result people call him ‘Raesh’, which means ‘tremulous’ in Arabic.

K.G. said he had no links with the terrorist organisation.

“There is nothing in my phone that could tie me to Daesh. I know nothing of them. I never dealt with them. I only signed a coupon with my friends at a coffee shop,” he told the judge.

The Omani, who signed the card at a coffee shop in Al Ain Mall, said he was surprised to get a call from police shortly after.

The prosecutor insisted that K.G. intended to write ‘Daesh’.

The matter is being treated as a misdemeanour under the terrorism Law No 7 of 2014.

“You know better than that,” the judge told K.G., who has a high school degree. “Someone with your education should be able to differentiate between such things.”

K.G. was defending himself but asked the court for time to hire a lawyer to present his case with a stronger defence. Lawyers aren’t mandatory for misdemeanour cases.

The case was adjourned to March 28.

In the third case,‎a mentally impaired patient was sent to the hospital after he requested the judge to send him for a mental check-up.

The lawyer of the man who is being charged with insulting the FNC did not appear in court but the judge granted the defendant’s request.