94 detainees arrested in the United Arab Emirates in September last year, who are due to stand trial on Monday 4 March will not face a fair trial, according to global advocacy group, Human Rights Watch.
The accused were charged in January with attempting to start a campaign to overthrow the Emirate's government.
"They launched, established and ran an organisation seeking to oppose the basic principles of the UAE system of governance and to seize power," according to a statement released by the UAE's Attorney General, published by the state news agency, WAM, in January.
The group has links with the Muslim Brotherhood, but in an interview with CNN, the son of 53 year old Abdullah Al-Hadidi, who is one of the 94, denied that it is a fully fledged branch of the organization, which is banned in the UAE.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based, global human rights advocacy group, has warned that those charged will not face a fair trial. According to the HRW, the prosecution withheld a document containing key information relating to the charges as well as denying access to satisfactory legal advice.
Two of the charged are prominent human rights campaigners in the UAE.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch said, “It appears that UAE authorities will drag scores of citizens through a shamelessly unfair judicial process that makes a mockery of justice.”
The UAE is a signatory of Article 13 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to a fair trial.
HRW says that under current conditions there are serious concerns over the possibility of a fair trial and human rights abuses,"including arbitrary detention and ill-treatment,” Whitson said.
