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Zayed issues law on anti-terror crimes

ABU DHABI - The President, His Highness Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, has decreed Federal law No. 1 for 2004 on combating terror crimes.

The decree defines the terror act as an action or inaction by a perpetrator in a bid to carry out a unilateral or collective criminal design, with the objective of triggering off terror or intimidation among people that could breach the public order or endanger the safety and security of the society or harm individuals or expose their lives, liberties or security to risk including kings, heads of state and governments and their families as well as any representative or an official of the state or an international organisation of governmental nature and members of families in their custody and to whom protection is provided by the international law.

According to the new law, a terror act also includes inflicting damage on a structure or any public or private facility or property or the occupation or seizure of the same or exposing a natural resource to risk.

Under the new legislation, anyone who establishes, founds, organises or administers a society, authority, organisation, centre, group or gang or held a leading position in them on purpose to commit a terror act as stipulated by the law shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment, while the court shall disband these societies, authorities, organisations or centres and close down their premises.

In all cases, funds, effects, arms, gadgets, documents, papers and other materials, that might have been used in committing the crime or set to be used in it or found in places set for the meetings of members of these societies, authorities, organisations, centres, groups or gangs, shall, as the law provides, be confiscated. The court shall also order that any money collected through a terror crime or is apparently part of the convict's properties, be confiscated if it has been established that such money has been earmarked for disbursement among the aforesaid societies, authorities, organisations, centres, groups or gangs.

Anyone who provides those societies, authorities, organisations, centres, groups or gangs with funds, conventional or non-conventional weapons or other materials, that may expose the lives of people or their assets to risk, or furnishes them with supplies, authentic or counterfeit documents, means of communications, any other equipment or information or advice that may help them to achieve their goals with him being fully aware of that, shall, as per the law, be sentenced to life or temporary imprisonment.

The law inflicts the same punishment on anyone who provides heads, managers or members of any of the foregoing societies, authorities, organisations, centres, groups or gangs with lodging, shelter or venue for their meeting or any other facilities despite his prior knowledge of their purpose.

In all cases, according to the law, properties and things found in the scene of the crime shall be confiscated.

The court shall order the confiscation of crime-related seizures or properties of the same value if the seizures or partially or wholly converted or replaced or mixed with other possessions, which have been acquired through legal sources.

Under the legislation, any person who joins any of the societies, authorities, organisations, centres, groups or gangs as provided in article (3) of the law, or takes part in them in any form despite his prior knowledge of their objectives, shall be sentenced to life or temporary imprisonment. However, the punishment shall be life imprisonment or a jail term of at least ten years in the event that he has received military or security training at any of these societies, authorities, organisations, centres, groups or gangs or if he is a member of the armed forces, police or customs.

According to the provisions of the new law, he who forces any body or prompts him to take part in or join any of the societies, authorities, organisations, centres, groups or gangs mentioned in article (3) of the law, or prevents his secession from them, shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or a jail term of at least 10 years. The convict shall, however, be sentenced to death should his act has caused the death of a person.

Anyone who trains one or more persons on the use of conventional and non-conventional weapons or telecommunications or electronic or any other means of communications or teaches him the art of war or combative techniques whatsoever on purpose to use the same in carrying out an act of terror, shall be sentenced to life or temporary imprisonment.

Under the law, any person who propagates by word or in writing or any other means, any act or purpose as set out in the new legislation, shall be sentenced to a jail term of no more than five years. The anti-terror law sentences to life imprisonment any person who approaches or establishes contact with a foreign state, society, authority, organisation, centre, group or gang domiciled beyond the UAE territories with the aim of committing an act of terror inside or outside the country against its properties, establishments, employees, diplomats or citizens or found to be an accomplice in one of these crimes.

He shall, however, be sentenced to death, if the crime in question takes place.

A national who collaborates or joins armed forces or militias, society, authority, organisation, centre, group and terrorist gang domiciled beyond the UAE territories, regardless of their names, set-up or goals, and which adopts terrorism or military training as a tool to achieve their aims, shall be sentenced to life or temporary imprisonment.

The same punishment shall apply to whoever is found in the UAE soil, after committing any of the aforementioned crimes while domiciled beyond the UAE boarders. Life or temporary imprisonment shall not be less than 10 years if the offender has received military or security training.

Offenders who shall take part in any terrorist acts shall be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Therefore, anyone who forces his/her way into the premises of a foreign diplomatic mission, or into the offices of the international organisations accredited to UAE - by way of resisting authorities concerned, and with the aim of committing a terrorist act - shall receive a temporary or life jail sentence.

The sentence shall be life imprisonment if the a gun is used or if the act is committed by more than one person.

According to the law, offenders who shall directly or indirectly raise or transfer money with the aim or , with the knowledge that some or all of this money will be used in funding terrorist acts, shall face life or temporary imprisonment. the punishment shall be applicable, whether the crime is committed or not. the fund shall be confiscated.

According to the law, any person who illegally manufactures, brings, prepares, imports, or brings or have in his possession or obtains non-conventional weapons or part of the components being used in the manufacturing, preparation or transporting of such a weapon or attempted to transport it through the mail, or one of the public or private means of transport or any other means, with the intent to use it in any terror act stated in this law, shall be sentenced to life or temporary imprisonment.

The sentence shall life imprisonment if the culprit steals or embezzles any of those weapons or acquired them through other foul or fraudulent means or poses in a false capacity or through an unlawful impersonation of a government or an international staff or uses a fake document to acquire those weapons.

The penalty shall be a death sentence or life imprisonment if the culprit threatens with the weapon to kill or dangerously maim persons or destroys public or private properties in order to influence the country's public authorities or foreign government or international organisation in doing its work or to get from them a benefit or any kind of advantage.

The penalty shall also be a death sentence if the act of the culprit leads to the death of any person. The law also stipulated that a person shall be sentenced to life imprisonment for the hijacking of, by any means, any means of air, land or sea transport with the intent of committing a terror act. The penalty shall also be life imprisonment if the act leads to the injury of any person inside or outside that means of transport, or if the culprit forcefully or violently resists the personnel of the public authorities during the course of discharging their duties of taking control of the means of transport from the culprit.

But the penalty shall be a death sentence if the culprit's act leads to the death of a person inside or outside the transport.

The law also states that a person shall be sentenced to life imprisonment for destroying, or exposing to danger or damaging any means of air, land

and sea transport or any of the air, land and sea navigation installations or hinder the smooth running of work in these installations in an attempt to commit terror act.

The penalty shall be life imprisonment if the act leads to the injury of any person inside or outside that installation. but the penalty

shall be a death sentence if the culprit's act leads to the death of a person inside or outside the installation. the culprit shall be sentenced

to a fine equal to double the cost of the things destroyed or damaged.

The law also stipulates that any person who unlawfully and without official authority captures or detains a person or holds him as a hostage

or threatens to continue to hold him hostage with the aim of committing terror act to influence the country's public authorities or foreign government or international organisation in doing its work or to get from them a benefit or any kind of advantage.

The penalty shall be life imprisonment if the victim is a head of state, minister, their family members, or an official representative of a government or an international organisation with governmental status or any of their family members who lives under the protection provided for them in accordance with international law, or if the culprit, during he course of committing the crime, poses in a false capacity or through an unlawful impersonation of a government or an international staff or uses a fake document, or if the act leads to an injury, or if the culprit resists the personnel of the government authorities during the course of discharging their duties. but the penalty shall be death sentence if the act of the culprit leads to the death of a person.

The law also stipulates that any person who commits an act of aggression against any one charged with implementing the rules of this law during the course of discharging his duties or due to his discharge of his duties or forcefully or violently resists him or threatens to use violence or force against him, shall be penalised to a temporary jail term.

The penalty shall be life imprisonment if the aggression or the resistance leads to a permanent deformity or if the culprit holds a weapon or kidnaps or detains any of the persons charged with implementing the rules of this law or his wife or any of his direct or indirect family members. The penalty shall be death sentence if the act of aggression or resistance, or kidnapping or detention leads to the death of a person.

Any person who uses explosives or non-conventional weapons in committing any of the crimes stated in the first paragraphs of articles 15, 16 and 17 of this law shall be punished by death. but a person, who incites for the committing of any of the crimes stated in this law shall be punished by a jail term not exceeding ten years if this incitement does not lead to any negative effect.

A person shall be punished by a temporary jail term if he/she participates in a criminal agreement with the aim of committing a crime stated in this law or uses it as a means of reaching the purpose for which the agreement is reached. any person who incites for the signing of such an agreement or has a hand in the running of the movement of this agreement shall be penalised with a sentence of life imprisonment. but any of the culprits who informs the government authorities about this agreement and its perpetrators before any crime among those stated in this article is committed shall be exempted from the penalties stated in this article.

Any person who invites other person to join an agreement aimed at committing a crime among those stated in this law shall be penalised to a jail term not exceeding five years if his invitation is not accepted.

Without prejudice to the rules of chapter two of section two of volume one of the penal code, the rules of this law shall apply to any person who commits outside the country any of the crimes stated in it against:

(a) A citizen of the United Arab Emirates.

(b) The UAE government property abroad, including a UAE embassy or any of its affiliated diplomatic or consular structures.

(c) Or with the intent of forcing the government to take some action or not to.

(d) Aboard a UAE registered means of transport or any means of transport bearing the UAE national flag.

The rules of this law shall also apply on every person arrested within the borders of the UAE, for having committed abroad any of the crimes stated in this law and stated in a valid international agreement to which the UAE is a signatory. but this shall be done in case the culprit is not to be surrendered to the country where the crime was committed.

Only the supreme court shall have the right to look into the crimes stated in this law and in the grievances stated in article 33 of the law.

The law states that the attorney general or any of his deputies shall directly order the review of any data or information related to the accounts, assets, deposits or money transfers or movement of monies on which the attorney general has enough evidence or reason to believe that they are related to the funding or committing of a terror activity stated in this law and the need for the disclosure of the reality on the issue demands such a review or the having of such data or information from the central bank or from any other financial, commercial or economic establishment.

Any money, account, property, seized items shall be freeze on the orders of the attorney general if these aforementioned items are suspected to be used in committing a terror act or any of the crimes mentioned in this law until investigations on the issue is fully completed.

Any aggrieved person affected by the attorney general's decision shall have the right for redress in the court of law, which shall sit and give its ruling on the issue within a period of fourteen days from the date of registering the suit.

Whatever the case, the assets and accounts freezing decision shall be implemented only through the central bank.

In accordance with this law, a committee, to be known as 'the national anti-terror committee' shall be set up. the cabinet shall issue a decree to set up this committee which shall consist of a representative of the following bodies, including the Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry, Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Auqaf, state security, the Defence Ministry, the Central Bank, Federal Customs Authority and any other body that the cabinet may so wish to include in the committee. The cabinet shall issue a decree to decide who to head the committee, its system of work, meetings and the mechanism of issuing its decisions and other issues, which the committee may need to operate successfully.

The committee shall have the following powers: liaising between the relevant authorities who are involved in combating terrorism, sharing information on crimes prescribed herein with concerned authorities in the country, recommending anti-terror legislation, following up and implementing UN Security Council resolution on terrorism , preparing country reports to the un security council as well as responding to queries of the world body in conjunction with relevant authorities, sharing information with anti--terror bodies in other countries and the United Nations, in addition to handling any other terror-related issues as may be referred by the cabinet.

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