Trial starts in UAE for 94 charged in coup plot

              
Ninety four people went on trial Monday in the United Arab Emirates on charges of trying to overthrow the government, the latest in a growing crackdown in the Gulf nation against perceived political or security threats inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings.                     

Amid tight security, about 200 relatives were bussed to the court in the heart of the capital Abu Dhabi for the morning hearing. The road leading the court was closed and authorities barred international media, including The Associated Press, and several rights groups from attending.                    

The defendants  unnamed doctors, academics, lawyers and other professionals  have been accused of building a secret network to plot the coup and raising money through real estate and other deals.                      

According to a government statement, the 94 are suspected of links to the Muslim Brotherhood and other unnamed parties they allegedly contacted for expertise and financial support in their plot. The detained include men and women who were arrested over the past year.                        

They are believed to be part of a loosely knit Islamist network known as al-Islah or Reform which advocates a greater public voice in UAE's tightly controlled affairs.                      
Rights groups have criticized the crackdown and it has also raised tensions with Egypt, which is governed by the Brotherhood. In the Gulf federation, the arrest of the 94 is seen as part of what appears to be growing intolerance for any criticism of the government or its leaders.                       

Last year, the UAE set stricter Internet monitoring and enforcement codes that include giving authorities wider leeway to crack down on web activists for offenses such as mocking the country's rulers or calling for demonstrations. And last week, a scholar from the London School of Economics was barred from entering the country  prompting the school to pull out of a planned conference.                     

Several relatives waiting to be bussed to the hearing in Abu Dhabi said the charges against their relatives were baseless and said they hoped justice would eventually prevail either through the courts or by way of the country's rulers. They said their family members had no links to the Brotherhood and only wanted to see greater democracy in the country, including giving the greater powers to the Federal National Council, the largely toothless public advisory body in the country.                      


AP