INTRODUCTION 14. The primary charge against the 94 defendants of founding and administrating an institution aimed at overthrowing the government is pursuant to Article 180 of the federal penal code. It provides that: A punishment of temporary imprisonment shall be inflicted on any person who institutes, founds, organises or administers a society, corporation, association, organisation, group, gang, or a subsidiary thereof of whatever name, aiming at overthrowing, seizing, or opposing the basic principles supporting the government regime in the State, or preventing any institution of the state or any public authority from exercising its functions, or attempting at the citizens' personal or other freedom or public rights guaranteed by the constitution or law, or harming the national unity or social peace. A punishment of imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years shall be inflicted on any person who joins a society, corporation, association or the organisations stated in the first paragraph of this article or cooperates therewith or participates therein in any manner or provides them with any financial or material aid whilst being aware of their purposes. 3 15. The prosecution is based on the allegation that the defendants are members of an organisation called Al-Islah (Reform). The prosecution alleges that this organisation has a subversive agenda and has links to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The central piece of evidence in the case is a confession by Ahmed Bin Ghaith Al-Suwaidi and other defendants and interrogations of the defendants whilst they have been held in solitary confinement with serious allegations of being subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment. 16. The defence's case is that the defendants, who are professional people - some from the highest echelons of Emirati society, have an interest in political reform. Some of them are members of Al-Islah, which has existed peacefully and is legally registered in the UAE since the 1970s. It was set up with government approval with the objective of advancing social and cultural education. They have called for more democracy in the political system in line with the Emirati constitution which sets out a desire to prepare “…the people of the Union at the same time for a dignified and free constitutional life, and progressing by steps towards a comprehensive, representative, democratic regime in an Islamic and Arab society free from fear and anxiety.” 17. The defence's case is that nothing has been done beyond calling for peaceful progress in democratic reform. 18. Many human rights groups have come together to express concern about the accelerating regression in relation to human rights standards in the country generally.4 The European Union in its resolution adopted on 26 October 2012 5 expressed concern regarding the crackdown against democracy activists and rights defenders in the UAE and called for the release of all prisoners of conscience. This trial follows on from the earlier “UAE 5” trial of 2011 6 in which five defendants were convicted of insulting the country’s senior officials by signing an online petition calling for democratic reform. 19. In 2011, four United Nations Special Rapporteurs sent communications concerning the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders in the UAE. In 2012, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders expressed serious concern about violations of defenders' right to freedom of expression and 3 http://www.scribd.com/doc/122309224/UAE-Penal-Code-amended1987#page=72 4 http://www.cihrs.org/?p=5828&lang=en 5 http://www.ifex.org/united_arab_emirates/2012/10/30/rights_climate/ 6 http://gc4hr.org/news/view/29 4