Dubai, UAE – The Emirates is to put 84 people on trial for terror-related offenses, state media said on Saturday.
The Gulf state’s attorney general ordered the trial of “mostly members of the terrorist organization of (the) Muslim Brotherhood”, official news agency WAM said.
In 2013, the UAE tried 94 activists, lawyers, students, teachers and other government critics, accusing them of membership of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
The trials resulted in jail time for 69 people.
The defendants are accused of “establishing another clandestine organization for the purpose of committing acts of violence and terrorism on UAE soil,” the news agency said.
“The defendants had concealed this crime and its evidence before they were arrested and tried” in 2013, it added.
A six-month investigation uncovered “sufficient evidence” for the attorney general to pursue the new trial, WAM said.
Emirati authorities said on Saturday that the defendants had been given legal representation, and that the State Security Court had “begun hearing witnesses and the public trial procedures are ongoing”.