United Arab Emirates to Try 94 for Planning Islamist Coup

Decision sparks tensions with Egypt

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Attorney General Salem Saeed Kubaish has announced that 94 Emiratis who have already been detained will be tried as part of a plot to seize control in the country.

The move seemed to show that the UAE government, one of the islands of stability in the face of the Arab spring protests that have swept other Middle East governments from power, fears that the Islamist movement could be gaining strength.

Kubaish said the suspects had formed a group that appeared to be calling on people to observe the teachings and values of Islam, but in secret had sought to overthrow the state. He also said they had links to foreigners, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The government sees this as a serious threat and they are trying to nip it in the bud very quickly,” Dr. Theodore Karasik, the Director for Research and Development of the Institute for Near East Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai[, told The Media Line. “They are sending a warning that individuals caught up in this will be tried. They are trying to keep their house in order.”

Many of the group’s members are tied to al-Islah, an Islamist group that the government says has links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which won power in Egyptian elections last year. Al-Islah says it favors peaceful reform and has no links to the Brotherhood.

In the UAE, all political parties and demonstrations are illegal. Some analysts say that is the reason the 94 activists will be tried.

“Most people here support the government,” Abdukhaleq Abdulla, a professor of political science at the UAE University, told The Media Line. “The president is immensely popular and the regime is seen as legitimate.”

The UAE is a federation of seven emirates, each with its own rule. Most of those being charged are from the smaller, relatively poorer emirates of Sharjah an Ras al-Khaimah. Human rights groups charge that the detainees were harassed and denied due process. Among the group of 94 are 14 women, relatives of those previously imprisoned.

The decision to go to trial has sparked tensions with Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been outlawed for decades, swept to victory in the last elections. Egypt is having its own unrest now, with dozens killed in demonstrations against Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.

Relations between the UAE and Egypt soured after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011. Mubarak is currently on trial in Egypt.

Last month, Egyptian media claimed that the UAE was behind a plot against Egypt’s leadership, a charge government officials denied.

Despite the charges against them, the 94 detainees do not seem to pose a serious threat to the stability of the regime.

“The regime is 110 percent stable,” Karasik said. “There’s good quality of life, good public services, and a sizeable expatriate population. The UAE is an island of stability in an otherwise unstable neighborhood.”

Yet, the regime is clearly concerned by the turmoil that has engulfed several of its Gulf neighbors including Bahrain, Yemen, Oman and Saudi Arabia, which have been rocked by pro-democracy protests.

“The power of the Islamists has been rising throughout the region,” Abdulla said. “Some of our own Islamists got a little bit carried away and thought they could become more active than usual. But the government has wide legitimacy. The detainees broke the law and like any other country we should abide by the law.”