The UAE has not seen street protests like those that have erupted this year across the Middle East, including in neighboring Bahrain. Authorities have moved aggressively to keep demands for political change, inspired by Arab Spring uprisings, out of the Gulf federation that includes glitzy Dubai.
The five activists were arrested in April and charged with anti-state crimes after signing an Internet petition calling for constitutional changes. Among those in custody are a prominent blogger and a trade law expert who has lectured at the Abu Dhabi branch of Paris’ Sorbonne university.
Defense lawyer Mohammed Al-Roken told Abu Dhabi’s Federal Supreme Court during Sunday’s proceedings that authorities have not presented sufficient evidence to convict the activists on charges including insulting the country’s rulers and endangering the state’s security.
Al-Roken also questioned the timing of the activists’ arrests, telling a three-judge panel that the public prosecutor waited for six months before indicting his clients for Internet postings, deemed too critical of the government by authorities.
“If the public prosecutor considered the posts insulting to the country’s leaders, he should have reported their authors immediately,” Al-Roken said. The fact that he waited, “might suggest there were other reasons for their arrests,” the lawyer added.
Political activity is severely restricted in the UAE, an alliance of seven semiautonomous states, each ruled by a hereditary sheik. There are no official opposition groups in the country and political parties are banned.
In an unprecedented move for the politically quiescent country, 130 people in March signed a petition demanding constitutional and parliamentary changes, free elections and a more equitable distribution of the country’s oil wealth.
Among the five are prominent blogger, Ahmed Mansour and Nasser bin Ghaith, a legal adviser to the UAE armed forces and a frequent lecturer at Abu Dhabi’s Sorbonne university.
A verdict in the case is expected Nov. 27. If convicted on all charges, the activists could face decades in jail. The defendants have no right to appeal.
