UAE secret group trial: Final defence arguments heard

 Abu Dhabi: The State Security Court at the Federal Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the case regarding a clandestine organisation accused of attempting to overthrow the government until July 2 when it will announce a verdict, which will not be subject to appeal.

Concluding yesterday’s session, presiding Judge Falah Al Hajiri thanked all those who attended the sessions, including the suspects, their relatives, lawyers, journalists and security guards.

He said: “I have been responsible for every session of this trial and the court has received a list of accusations made by the prosecution against the suspects, along with the pleas from the lawyers. So I would like to thank everyone for their cooperation and I ask God to help us do the right thing.”

He concluded by saying: “The Emirati judicial system is a good one.”

During Tuesday’s session, four lawyers spoke and requested in their appeal to have all the accusations withdrawn. The lawyers also said that the procedures by which the suspects were arrested were illegal and called for the suspects’ immediate release.

Chief Justice Al Hajiri heard from advocate Abdul Hamid Al Kumaiti who spoke on behalf of 68 suspects, in addition to hearing the pleas from three lawyers who did not have time in the previous session to represent 15 of the accused. The first lawyer, Jasem Al Naqbi, spoke for one hour and explained to the court that the process of arresting his clients did not follow the law and that the arrests were carried out without first verifying the facts. He stated that some official documents related to the investigation of suspects were issued after the accused had been in jail for four months.

Al Naqbi questioned the legitimacy of the prosecution’s source and stated that the trial was being held to judge the suspects’ opinions and not their actions. He also stated the inaccurate information that was provided by the prosecution was based on false evidence, and focused on the prosecution’s mistakes.

“One of the defendants, who is the owner of a training centre, was accused of training people who were members of a secret organisation but the centre was actually being used to train people in administrative posts from different fields, like accountants and teachers, including police,” he said.

Al Kumaiti, who represented the majority of the accused, declared his clients’ innocence, their loyalty to the government, and requested that their assets and financial accounts be reactivated, and asked for an investigation into the prosecution’s methods of acquiring information because the accused claimed to have signed their statements while blindfolded.

He stated that his clients filed complaints with the prosecution about being abused, but the prosecution failed to provide any care and failed to follow up on the complaints.

Al Kumaiti, during his hour-long speech, also accused the prosecution of gathering evidence from the social networking site Twitter and other internet sites. He stated that none of the accused attempted to defame the country’s reputation, locally or internationally, and that their criticisms merely reflected their concern for people’s rights and not to attack the government.

The last two lawyers, who each spoke for ten minutes, denied that the organisation consisted of an investment committee, and pointed out that the four suspects accused of financing the organisation never had any personal relationship with each other. One of the lawyers requested that his client be released on bail due to the false accusations, and stated that the suspect left the organisation in 1995 and was not in contact with it since.

He denied the accusation that his client held a secret meeting for the organisation in his majlis, as the suspect was away in another emirate at the time in question.