Abu Dhabi: Three men charged with setting up an affiliate of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group in the UAE were sentenced to six months in prison to be followed by deportation, the Federal Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
The men, Canadian Lebanese Suhail Naif Gareeb, 62; Lebanese Asa’d Ameen Qansouh, 66; and Ahmad Ebrahim Qansouh, 30, were found guilty of setting up an office of the militant group in the UAE and carrying out commercial, economic and political activities without licences, the court presided over by judge Falah Al Hajeri ruled.
The General Prosecutor earlier told the court that the three men established and managed an international group belonging to Lebanon-based Hezbollah without official permission or licences.
In November 2014, the UAE branded 80 groups as terrorist organisations, including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Daesh in line with a federal law on combating terrorism. Hezbollah also figured in the list, including Shiite Hezbollah in the Gulf states and brigades with the same name in Iraq.
The list includes Muslim Brotherhood’s local and regional affiliates, as well as Al Qaida-linked groups operating in different parts of the region.
Several brigades fighting on both sides in the Syrian conflict along with Islamist groups in Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Pakistan, Nigeria’s Boko Haram as well as Afghanistan’s Taliban account for the bulk of the list.
The move followed a similar step taken by Saudi Arabia in March 2014.
In another case, Jasem Mohammad Ramadan Al Beloushi was sentenced to three years in jail for spying.
The man was found guilty of passing classified information to Iranian intelligence agents in the Iranian consulate in Dubai.
In the third case, a woman charged with setting up and running social media accounts to tarnish the image of the country had her hearing adjourned to May 2, on a request from her lawyer.
The woman denied the charges and told the court she never meant to harm anybody or any government department.
In a fourth case, two Emiratis charged with joining Al Islah terrorist group had their hearing adjourned to May 2,
Through his lawyer, one of the defendants apologised for not being able to appear in court for health reasons, while the other told the court he has never seen the charges or case documents. He claimed he was held in a solitary confinement and he had no access to his lawyer.
The man asked that the court allow him to receive visitors and his lawyer and that he be transferred to a general prison.
A group of 15 Yemenis and four Emiratis, charged with joining the Yemeni Brotherhood terrorist group, had their hearing adjourned to May 2 to allow their lawyers to present their defence.
The court heard the indictment in a case involving a 17-year-old Emirati, charged with joining Daesh.
The youngster had reportedly flown to Turkey from where he travelled to Syria. He then allegedly took an oath of allegiance to Daesh leaders and was trained in martial arts in camps of the terrorist group, the court heard.
