Amnesty: UAE Must Free Critics 'Unjustly' Jailed in Mass Trial

Shafaq News/ The United Arab Emirates, host of this year's U.N. climate talks, must release dozens of Emirati nationals "unjustly imprisoned" in a 2013 mass trial, Amnesty International said Sunday, decrying the country's rights record.

In a statement marking a decade since the trial concluded, Amnesty warned that the COP28 meeting would be "tarnished by repression" if the 60 Emiratis still languishing in prison are not immediately freed.

The UAE "is in the international spotlight through its upcoming hosting of the most important annual climate change conference," said Heba Morayef, Amnesty's regional director for the Middle East.

But "its government has not released any of the 60 Emiratis it unjustly imprisoned in the notorious mass trial of 2013, even though 51 of those detained have completed their sentence," she said in a statement.

The so-called "UAE94" trial followed a spate of arrests and persecutions in 2012 targeting 94 Emirati critics of the government, including activists, lawyers, students and teachers.

The UAE charged dozens of suspects with links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which it considers a "terrorist group."

Of the 69 convicted, 60 remain in prison, including 51 who are undergoing "counter-extremism counselling," Amnesty said.

The case has drawn criticism from rights groups, especially in the lead-up to COP28, due to be held in the UAE financial hub of Dubai from November 30.