Three Emiratis get jail, fine for joining terrorist outfits

Abu Dhabi - One of the convicted Emiratis was also fined Dh1 million by the Federal Supreme Court.

The state security circuit of the appelate court of supreme federal court on Wednesday convicted a terrorist cell, comprising three people, of joining Al Nusra Front terrorist outfits in Syria and receiving training and fighting along with it.
Emirati A.H.M was sentenced to five years in jail and fined Dh1 million. The court ordered the devices with him be confiscated. The court also ordered the photos, information and documents stored in the devices be destroyed.
The court condemned A.H.Y.G, an Arab, to three years in jail and deportation after he is released.
Emirati H.S.M was handed down a year’s imprisonment on charge of aiding and abetting members of the terrorist cell to set up electronic accounts on social media networking sites to promote ideologies of the terror groups.
The court, meanwhile, read out the indictment sheets in a case in which 29-year-old Emirati S.H.S.H was accused of indulging in combats and trainings with Ahrar Al Sham terror group in Syria.
S.H.S.H was charged by the public prosecution with commission of a crime listed in the anti-terror law of year 2004. S.H.S.H denied the charges against him.
Lawyer Abdul Qader Al Haithami defended the suspect demanding the acquittal of his client claiming that he (his client) had travelled to Syria to join the Free Syrian army, and not any terror group, telling the court that the Free Syrian army is not labeled as a terrorist organisation.
Al Haithami told the court that Ahrar Al Sham group had not been declared as a terrorist group during the period when his client traveled to Syria in 2014. The lawyer asserted that the Free Syrian army is not a terrorist group, rather a legitimate group.
Charged for joining Al Qaeda
The prosecution charged a Pakistani suspect, identified as A.Th, with joining Al Qaeda terrorist group in Pakistan. It also accused a Pakistani suspect A.W.Kh, 25, of covering up the fact that A.Th joined a terror group and failed to report him to the authorities in the UAE. The court adjourned the case to March 1.
malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi