ABU DHABI - A United Arab Emirates court on Tuesday jailed scores of Emiratis convicted of plotting a coup, after a trial that reflected the Gulf state's mistrust of Islamist groups following the Arab uprisings.
Among the 68 men convicted were academics and members of some prominent families in the UAE, including a cousin of the ruler of one of the seven emirates in the oil-rich federation.
Judge Falah al-Hajiri read out the names of 26 acquitted defendants, then announced jail terms for the remaining 68, eight of whom he sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison.
According to a videotape of Hajiri reading his judgment in court, broadcast on Abu Dhabi television, 56 defendants were sentenced to 10 years in jail. The fate of four other defendants among the 94 accused was not immediately clear.Dozens of people have been detained in a crackdown on Islamists in the past year amid heightened worries among officials about a spillover of unrest in other Arab countries.
The trial, which human rights groups say included "flagrant flaws" in procedure, was widely seen as an effort to tackle what the UAE says is a threat from the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
The defendants had denied the charges, and some said they had been abused in detention, an accusation the state denied.
International media have been barred from attending the court hearings, which began in March. On Tuesday witnesses said police blocked roads outside the court and kept reporters away.
A British lawyer, Melanie Gingell, mandated by several human rights groups to attend the hearing, was informed at the last minute that she could not do so, the groups said in a statement.
Many of the 94 defendants belong to al-Islah, a group which the UAE says has links to Egypt's Brotherhood. Al-Islah denies this, but says it shares some of the Brotherhood's ideology.
The defendants, known as UAE94, were accused of "belonging to an illegal, secret organization ... that aims to counter the foundations of this state in order to seize power and of contacting foreign entities and groups to implement this plan".
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