Lawyer says: ‘No proof my client joined terror group’

Emirati denies charges that he went to Syria to join Jabhat Al Nusra fighters.

ABU DHABI // The brothers of a man who is charged with joining a terrorist organisation in Syria have described how he went missing during a family holiday to Turkey.

K T M, 41, an Emirati, is accused of being a member of Jabhat Al Nusra, an Al Qaeda-linked group, where he participated in terrorist acts.

His elder brother, J T M, 42, told the Federal Supreme Court: “His passport was with us and we were afraid that something had happened to him.” The family informed the UAE Embassy in Turkey and were told to notify the police.

“Three days later we received a WhatsApp message from him that read ‘forgive me, I am in Syria’,” said J T M. “That is when we left for the UAE.”

K T M’s lawyer, Fahad Al Sabhan, asked if his client had given any hints that he was considering travelling to Syria, to which J T M said he had not.

The other brother, S T M, 40, said K T M contacted him eight months later. “He was in Izmir, Turkey, thousands of kilometres from Syria. He told me he was arrested at immigration and he wanted his passport so he could return home,” he said. S T M said that after a month, the State Security in Dubai asked him to travel to Turkey.

He said, when in Turkey, “I was told he must be deported. I was also told that K T M’s documents were taken to the United States for inspection. After 23 days he was released and in Dubai he was arrested,” he said.

Mr Al Sabhan said there was no proof that K T M had joined a terrorist organisation, or that he had been to Syria. “The investigation showed that K T M had joined Jabhat Al Nusra’s Eagle’s Pride battalion, but they failed to say who or what they are,” he said. “Where is the proof of whom he met or what he did?”

K T M told the court: “I stayed in Turkey as a tourist because I had a dispute with my family and then I lost my phone. I couldn’t return because I didn’t have my passport.”

A video was also presented to the court howing K T M wearing black clothes and singing to children. Mr Al Sabhan said there was no proof it was filmed in Syria. Judge Falah Al Hajeri requested that the video be analysed by forensic experts and adjourned the case to July 6.