A report released on Monday alleges that the judiciary of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is covertly conducting a mass trial involving 87 political prisoners on fabricated terrorism charges while concurrently hosting the United Nations COP28 climate summit.
The report was issued by the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Center (EDAC), a human rights organization established to support political activists currently detained by the UAE government.
The report asserts that the mass trial commenced on December 7, with 43 individuals charged with “establishing a terrorist organization,” and 44 others facing charges of “supporting and endorsing the organization.”
EDAC, led by Hamad al-Shamsi, an Emirati political dissident who sought refuge in Istanbul after being placed on a terrorism list himself, learned about the trial through “exclusive sources” familiar with the legal proceedings.
The accused include prominent academics, businessmen, and human rights activists, with EDAC drawing parallels between the ongoing government crackdown and mass persecution and the “UAE94” case, a similarly orchestrated mass trial of government critics in 2013.
UAE94 involved the arrest and indefinite detention of 94 Emirati citizens by the UAE’s State Security Apparatus on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, with 66 of them being convicted.
“UAE87 marks the second-largest political mass trial in the UAE’s history after the UAE94 case, and the charges carry severe penalties, including death and life imprisonment, under Article 21 of the anti-terrorism crimes law,” states the EDAC release.
The report indicates that some individuals convicted in the UAE94 case are among those charged in UAE87, suggesting that the new trial aims to impose additional sentences on individuals whose previous sentences have already been served, especially those associated with UAE94.
Human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor is reported to be one of the 87 individuals. In 2017, Mansoor was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Emirati government. His arrest has been internationally denounced by rights organizations and civil liberties watchdogs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, both of which participated in a demonstration at COP28’s U.N.-administered Blue Zone by displaying Mansoor’s face.