Al Qaeda cell plotted to bomb landmarks in UAE, court hears

Nine men are on trial at the state security department of the Federal Supreme Court accused of establishing and running a terror cell in the country and sending funds to Jabhat Al Nusra, an Islamist group fighting the regime of Bashar Al Assad in Syria.

ABU DHABI // Members of an Al Qaeda cell tried to recruit Emiratis as part of a plot to bomb UAE landmarks, the Federal Supreme Court was told on Monday.

Three officers from State Security told the court that the men had photographs, videos and documents all promoting jihad.

The court heard how the officers found 2,838 images showing step-by-step illustrations of how to make bombs, weapons, explosive belts and rockets.

They also found 176 documents relating to cyber wars, how to form a military camp, as well as courses on first aid and how to spread ideas on social media.

Nine men are on trial at the court’s state security department accused of establishing and running a terror cell in the country and sending funds to Jabhat Al Nusra, an Islamist group fighting the regime of Bashar Al Assad in Syria.

They are also accused of spreading its goals on the internet and trying to recruit for the Islamists in the UAE.

“The results of our investigation showed there was a group of people who were meeting with the aim of encouraging Jabhat Al Nusra, which we know is related to Al Qaeda,” said T N, 28, the first officer from State Security to give evidence on Monday.

“Group members were encouraged to gather Emiratis specifically to join the group in order to acquire larger financial alms. Other members were asked to research landmarks in the country and to study them and then try to bomb them,” said T N.

“I D [one of the defendants] was providing financial alms to Jabhat Al Nusra in Syria and then recruited B G [another defendant] because he had electronic knowledge.”

The officer said another defendant was then recruited to assist B G and to communicate with R A in Syria.

He said that I D would send Dh100,000 to R A monthly to support the Islamist group.

The source of the financial aid was not disclosed in court.

Both I D and B G created a website, financially supported by R A, to spread the group’s ideas in the UAE.

The officer said they were both using “security measures to delete IP addresses” from laptops. He said they would also use mobile phone Sim cards using random names and would switch them regularly.

A second State Security officer, M K, 33, said he found receipts of money transfers in the homes of three defendants – I D, M S and Y Q. He said the details of the receipts were found in the case files.

A member of the public prosecution said the evidence presented at court was enough to establish a case against the group.

Judge Falah Al Hajeri requested medical reports on the accused.

In the last hearing they claimed they had been ill-treated.

The judge also instructed the case files to be delivered to the defendants immediately.

Two family members and a representative from the Tunisian embassy were present at the court on Monday.

The case was adjourned to June 2 when the public prosecution and lawyers would give their presentations.

The nine men, all of Arab origins, deny the allegations.

Eight were in the court on Monday, while R A was being tried in his absence.