More than 80 lawyers, academics and activists in the United Arab Emirates who had been convicted in shadowy national security trials years ago, after they had called for political reforms, had expected to soon be released from prison as, one by one, their sentences expired.
But in a move that stunned the prisoners’ families, the men were all prosecuted again, the majority sentenced on Wednesday to terms ranging from 10 years to life in prison, dashing their families’ hopes of a long-delayed reunion.
The authorities accused the men of starting a “terrorist” organization called the Justice and Dignity Committee, and a court in Abu Dhabi sentenced 10 of them to an additional 10 to 15 years behind bars, and 43 others to life in prison. The court dismissed the cases against 24 defendants, the Emirati state news agency said, and acquitted one of them. The outcomes of the cases against the remaining defendants remained unclear.
“It is something that shocked everyone — for what?” said Ahmed Al Nuaimi, an Emirati dissident living in exile in London. “Just calling for democracy leads to life in prison?” Mr. Al Nuaimi added. “It’s unacceptable and unimaginable.”
He himself had been charged and tried in absentia in the case, and his brother, who is imprisoned in the Emirates, received a life sentence, he said.
Life in prison in the Emirates generally means a 25-year term rather than imprisonment until death. But for many of the detainees, who are in their 50s, 60s and older, there is little difference, relatives said.
“The 10 years seemed like a lot for us in the first place,” said Jenan Al Marzooqi, whose father, Abdulsalam Al Marzooqi, 54, was among those who received life sentences on Wednesday. “I feel like it’s a shame to call it even a trial, because it was more like a play,” added Ms. Al Marzooqi, 27, who lives in exile in Massachusetts.
Human rights groups that had spent months raising concerns about the mass trial against the 84 defendants condemned the verdict. Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement with other groups that the trial had been “fundamentally unfair” and that the committee that the authorities had designated as a terrorist organization had instead been an “independent advocacy group.”
The Emirati state news agency said in a report that the men had been part of a local Islamist group called Al Islah that “worked to create and replicate violent events in the country,” referring to the Arab Spring revolutions a decade ago, which the news agency said had spread “panic and terror” and threatened the states’ sovereignty.
The court “ensured that the defendants’ rights and guarantees were protected,” the news agency said, adding that “these crimes differ from the crimes that the defendants were previously charged with.” The news agency also asserted that the court’s conviction had been in accordance with “the principle that prohibits charging people with the same crime twice.”
The Emirati Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Persian Gulf, is a close U.S. ally and an immigrant hub that has translated oil wealth over the past few decades into immense economic and political power, including a network of global ports, deep investments across Africa and Asia, and an extensive lobbying operation in Washington.
The country has attracted millions of foreign residents by offering physical security, economic comfort and relative social freedom. But it is also one of the most politically repressive states in the Middle East, with a zero-tolerance policy for dissent from its citizens, who make up a small minority of the population.
Many of the prisoners sentenced on Wednesday were among the more than 100 Emiratis who signed a petition in 2011, during the pro-democracy Arab Spring revolutions, calling for the creation of an elected Parliament with legislative powers.
The state survived unscathed during the Arab Spring street protests that swept neighboring countries, and the Emirati authorities embarked on a widespread crackdown, silencing and co-opting a wide range of Emiratis who had voiced their opinions with relative openness.
The country has maintained a particularly close relationship with the United States, receiving less public criticism of its human rights record than other U.S. allies in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
“This latest chapter in our bilateral cooperation underscores that when it comes to the U.S.-U.A.E. partnership, the sky is not the limit, but just the beginning,” the American ambassador to the Emirates, Martina Strong, wrote in an essay published in an Emirati newspaper on Monday.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rights groups and relatives of the defendants said that they found it difficult to view the trial as anything other than a pretext to keep the men in prison beyond their original sentences.
The defendants included lawyers, academics, writers, activists, former government employees, a television presenter and a ruling family member from Ras Al Khaimah, a northern emirate. Many were initially convicted in a 2013 mass trial, although some were tried later in separate cases.
In 2014, a United Nations working group found that the convictions of Mr. Al Marzooqi and dozens of other defendants in that trial had been “based on charges of acts that would fall under the rights to freedom of expression and of assembly,” and that their detention had been “arbitrary.”
Ms. Al Marzooqi said that her father had been a courts official in Dubai before his arrest.
“He was an active citizen in the U.A.E., serving his country and serving his people,” she said. “He always called for reform, called for a better Emirates.”
When her father was arrested in 2012, he told his family that he would be back in a couple of days, she recalled. Like many of the other detainees, he completed his initial prison sentence more than two years ago, but was kept behind bars, she said.
The Emirati authorities announced the new trial last year, during COP28, the U.N. climate talks held in Dubai. In January, a group of United Nations special rapporteurs sent a letter to the Emirati government expressing their “deepest concern” about the new trial, including allegations about “the use of torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” to extract confessions.
“Everything was shrouded in secrecy,” Ms. Al Marzooqi said of the new trial.
At one session that a relative attended, she said, her father was heard defending himself against evidence presented by prosecutors that appeared to be social media posts he had made before his arrest.
“They’re just retrying them with the same exact charges, with things that all happened prior,” Ms. Al Marzooqi said.
Mr. Al Nuaimi, the Emirati dissident who now lives in London, said that he and his brother had been members of Al Islah, the local Islamist organization. For decades, it was treated as a legal civil society group dedicated to education reform and other issues. But the organization was eventually disbanded and branded by the government as a terrorist group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“We are not a terrorist group; we are very peaceful; we didn’t have any crime on our records,” Mr. Al Nuaimi said.
Rights activists and dissidents said it was unclear whether any of the men would be released from prison.
“I am hoping to see more pressure on the U.A.E. from Western governments that call for liberty and have very deep connections with the U.A.E.,” Ms. Al Marzooqi said.
She has struggled to understand why the government did not release them after they had served their time, she said, but concluded that “the oppressive does not need a reason to oppress people.”
“They know that those are the people that they cannot control,” she said.
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