DUBAI (Middle East Eye) – 
Forty-three Emiratis were sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday in the second largest trial in United Arab Emirates history, the state-run WAM news agency has reported.
According to the Emirates Detainees Advocacy Centre (EDAC) among those who received life sentences are Sultan bin Kayed al-Qasimi, a senior member of the ruling family in Ras Al-Khaimah, academic and activist Mohammed Abdul Razzaq al-Siddiq, human rights defender Abdulsalam Mohamed Darwish al-Marzooqi and economist Nasser Bin Ghaith.
Another five men received 15 years and at least one man was acquitted, EDAC’s executive director Hamad al-Shamsi told Middle East Eye, citing sources who were present for the mid-morning hearing at Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court.
“The decision lasted only seven minutes,” al-Shamsi said.
He said families who attended the court house were held in a separate room, watching from a television screen as their relatives, who were present in the courtroom, were sentenced.
The trial, dubbed the ‘UAE84’ after the 84 defendants who were tried, has been criticized by UN experts and rights groups as grossly unfair.
In January, more than a dozen UN special rapporteurs said the trial violated international prohibitions on double jeopardy and retroactive criminal law and had been brought “on spurious terrorism charges”.