Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court on Wednesday sentenced three Arabs to 15 years in jail and fined each of them Dh500,000 on terrorism charges.

The three convicts, two Egyptians and a Saudi citizen, were found guilty of promoting the ideology of terrorist organisations and breaking the UAE Cybercrime Law No. 5 of 2012.

The men will also be deported after serving their jail terms. The court also ordered the confiscation of their laptops and cell phones and shutting down of their social media accounts.

The men were also found guilty of harming the UAE’s relations with a neighbouring country.

The court also heard a number of terror-related cases. In one such case, the prosecutors charged 12 men with espionage.

A prosecution witness told the court an Arab intelligence officer recruited a number of bankers and employees in a government department to obtain sensitive information about leading officials and businessmen.

The witness said in his testimony that each spy was paid Dh100,000 and a Mercedes car for passing on the details of bank accounts and properties of the high-ranking officials.

The court adjourned the case to May 9 to hear more witnesses.

In a separate case, the court heard the lawyers of nine Arabs, charged with promoting the ideology of terrorist organisations, including Daesh, and insulting UAE leaders on a social media account.

Their lawyers, Hassan Al Reyami and Mohammad Al Azazi, demanded that the defendants be cleared for a lack of evidence and wrong investigation procedures.

The court fixed May 9 for pronouncing the verdict.

In another case, a citizen of a Gulf country charged with joining Al Nusra Front terrorist organisation and training alongside their elements in Syria had his hearing adjourned to May 9.

The defendant told the court that he had turned himself in to the authorities and informed them of his wrongdoings. He demanded that he be cleared of all charges.

Another citizen of a Gulf country, charged with insulting the UAE’s leaders and harming relations with a sisterly country, had his hearing adjourned to May 9.

Although the defendant told the court that he would represent himself and required no lawyer, the court adjourned the hearing to May 9 to assign a lawyer to him. </s> Jail term up to 15 years and $136,000 fines could be handed out to offenders, attorney general statement says.

The United Arab Emirates has banned people from publishing expressions of sympathy towards Qatar and will punish offenders with a jail term of up to 15 years, the UAE-based newspaper Gulf News and pan-Arab channel Al-Arabiya reported.

In a statement released on Wednesday, UAE's Attorney-General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said sympathising with Qatar was a cybercrime punishable by law.

"Strict and firm action will be taken against anyone who shows sympathy or any form of bias towards Qatar, or against anyone who objects to the position of the United Arab Emirates, whether it be through the means of social media, or any type of written, visual or verbal form," Gulf News quoted Shamsi as saying in the statement.

The Federal Public Prosecution also announced that according to the Federal Penal Code and the Federal law decree on Combating Information Technology Crimes, anyone who threaten the interests, national unity and stability of the UAE will face a jail term from three to 15 years, and a fine not less than AED 500,000 ($136,000).

Since the diplomatic row erupted, slogans against and in support of Qatar have been among the top topics discussed on Twitter in Arabic, which is a hugely popular medium of expression in the Arab world, particularly in Saudi Arabia.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of supporting "extremism".

The dispute between Qatar and the Arab countries escalated after a recent hack of Qatar's state-run news agency.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told reporters in Paris that Qatar must end its support for the Palestinian group Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood before ties with other Arab Gulf states could be restored.

Hamas said in a statement that al-Jubeir's remarks "constitute a shock for our Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nations".

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel accused US President Donald Trump of stirring up conflicts in the Middle East and risking a new arms race.

The dispute comes less than a month after Trump visited Saudi Arabia and called for Muslim nations to unite against "extremism".

Qatar said there was "no legitimate justification" for several nations cutting diplomatic ties and the decision was in "violation of its sovereignty".
The Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court jails two Egyptians and a Saudi for fifteen years each and fines them for promoting terrorist ideologies online. The court orders them deported after release, their computer equipment seized, and their social media presences deleted.