Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Court of Appeals on Wednesday heard the case of 11 Arabs — three fugitives and eight detainees — charged with setting up a terrorist cell and planning terrorist attacks in the UAE upon the orders of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
State Security Prosecution charged the members of the cell with planning to bomb a vital facility in the UAE.
The cell also carried out a mock attack in a yard close to the facility to test the response of UAE security services to such incidents.
The prosecution accused the cell members residing in the UAE of communicating with Hezbollah in favour of Iran and collecting sensitive security information from the UAE’s ports and airports, where Hezbollah agents filmed sensitive places that are not allowed to be photographed.
Other agents filmed a port in clear violation of instructions not to photograph sensitive locations, the court heard. State Security Prosecution accused members of the cell of delivering sensitive security information and images of sensitive locations to Hezbollah agents, who leaked them to Iranian intelligence services.
The prosecution also charged a member of the terrorist cell with possession of a firearm without a licence.
The indictment against the cell members states that the defendants had violated articles in the Federal Penal Code and Articles 19 and 27 of Federal Law No. 7 of 2014 on combating cybercrime.
After hearing the indictment from the State Security Prosecution, the court adjourned the case to February 27, at the request of the defence to look into investigation files and prepare their response.
In another case, the state security prosecutor charged six Nigerian defendants residing in the UAE with joining the Boko Haram terrorist group and taking an oath of allegiance to the group, despite knowing that it is a terrorist organisation prohibited under UAE law.
The prosecution also accused the UAE-based group of collecting and transferring funds from within the UAE to members of Boko Haram.
After hearing the indictment, the court ordered that the case be adjourned until March 6 at the request of the defence to prepare their response.
