UAE court issues prison sentences, fines in 'Justice and Dignity Organization' case

The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday to convict 53 defendants from the leaders and members of the "Muslim Brotherhood" organization and 6 companies in the case known as the "Justice and Dignity Organization Case."

According to the decision of the State Security Court, the case bears the number 87 of 2023, State Security Penalty, known in the media as the “Justice and Dignity Organization Case,” noting that the penalties imposed on the accused range from life imprisonment to a fine of 20 million Emirati dirhams.

The court statement said that it had sentenced 43 people to life imprisonment on charges of “establishing, founding and managing the Justice and Dignity Committee” with the aim of committing “terrorist” acts on Emirati soil, as well as sentencing 5 defendants to 15 years in prison for their crime of cooperating with the “Reform Call Organization” and supporting it in articles and tweets they published on social media, knowing its anti-state objectives, and sentencing 5 other defendants to 10 years in prison and fining each of them 10 million dirhams for money laundering crimes resulting from the crimes of “establishing, founding and financing a terrorist organization.”

The court also punished 6 companies and their officials by fining each of them 20 million dirhams, dissolving and closing the headquarters of those companies, confiscating their assets, material and moral rights, money, real estate and facades owned by them, and confiscating the materials, tools and all seized belongings obtained and used in the crimes attributed to them, which are money laundering crimes committed by an organized criminal group and using the laundered proceeds to finance a terrorist organization.

The court also ruled to dismiss the criminal case against 24 defendants for the crimes of cooperation and providing money to the “Call for Reform” organization, and to acquit one of the defendants of what was attributed to him.

It is worth noting that this ruling is subject to appeal before the Federal Supreme Court.

The court confirmed in the reasons for its ruling, which it deposited today, that the crime for which it punished the defendants, establishing, founding and managing the “Justice and Dignity Committee” organization, is a different crime and differs from the crime for which they were tried in Case No. 79 of 2012, State Security Penalty.

She added that the evidence presented in the case, including confessions and admissions of a number of the accused, witness testimonies and technical reports submitted therein, is sufficient to prove the crime against the accused.

The court had considered the case and initiated the trial procedures during more than ten sessions, guaranteeing the defendants all their rights and guarantees stipulated by law, enabling them to choose their lawyers, appointing a lawyer to defend each defendant who did not have a lawyer, listening to their defence and their lawyers, and reviewing the written defence memoranda they submitted.