No evidence linking accused to account supporting Muslim Brotherhood, UAE court hears

ABU DHABI // There is no evidence to link a man accused of publishing support for the Muslim Brotherhood online with a Twitter account that praised the group, argued his lawyer.

Emirati M M F, 43, is accused of used his personal Twitter account to show sympathy towards the group.

Court documents shown to the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi state “he legitimised the work of the Muslim Brotherhood calling them peaceful, unarmed heroes and rallied on people to support them”.

“The sentiments that were found online do not represent my client’s beliefs or reflect them as can be seen in the investigations,” his lawyer said.

“Also there is no evidence to link my client to the crime. It’s an electronic crime and there has been no electronic evidence tied to him. Two computers and two phone were seized in the process that forensic experts could not find anything on that is linked to the alleged Twitter account in question,” added the lawyer.

The Twitter account had been inactive for a long time before M M F was arrested, his lawyer explained.

“My client does not belong to any group or political ideology,” his lawyer told the court.

M M F is also accused of publishing information to damage the reputation of the UAE, defaming the UAE’s state security and insulting a judge at the Federal Supreme Court on his Twitter account.

He is being tried under the UAE’s cybercrime law number 5 of 2012 which criminalises all forms of electronic abuse.

A verdict is expected on March 27.