Dozens to stand trial in UAE

The United Arab Emirates' top prosecutor Salem Saeed Kubaish said in a statement Sunday that the suspects were part of a highly organized cell that had planned to carry out terrorist acts against the country's leadership and civilians.

"They were planning to harm public and private institutions, take power in the UAE and create a caliphate that matches their ideologies," Kubaish said, adding that the suspects called themselves the Minaret Youth Group.

The statement also alleged the accused had acquired firearms and explosives through money raised from "foreign terrorist groups."

Although mass trials related to terror offenses are rare in the UAE, this is the second such case in the Gulf country in recent years. In 2013, it sentenced more than 60 people to jail for links to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood is one of several Islamist groups that have been listed as a terrorist organization in a recent crackdown in the UAE. Human rights groups have raised concerns that the blacklist extends far beyond the jihadists of terror groups like "Islamic State" (IS) and al Qaeda, and also targets peaceful dissent.

The country has been on alert for possible IS attacks on its soil, and has also increased security measures by implementing tougher anti-terror legislation and harsher penalties for crimes linked to religious hatred.

The UAE is a key Western ally in the fight against IS, and has been part of the US-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against the militants in Syria since September 2014. It suspended its involvement earlier this year, however.

IS controls large areas of Iraq and Syria, and has carried out a series of attacks in the Gulf, including bombings of Shiite mosques in both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

nm/jlw (Reuters, AP, AFP)