UAE jails seven for links to Hezbollah

A United Arab Emirates court sentenced seven people to up to life in prison for establishing a cell linked to the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah, state media said on Monday.

 

An Emirati man and two Lebanese men were handed life sentences and an Egyptian woman and another Emirati man were each jailed for 10 years, according to state news agency WAM.

 

An Iraqi and another Lebanese man were each jailed for 15 years.

 

The charges included "handing over information about a government department" and "oil production in the UAE" as well as "maps of a gas field" to Hezbollah, WAM said.

 

In February, the UAE along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait - all US-allied Sunni Muslim states - declared the Iran-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization and warned any citizen or expatriate against any links to it.

 

Hezbollah has backed the government side in Syria's civil war while Sunni Gulf Arab states have supported rebels bent on toppling President Bashar al-Assad.