Southeast Asian media is reporting that Indonesia has extradited an individual from the Muslim Brotherhood in the UAE who was sentenced to jail in absentia two years ago for allegedly plotting a coup in the Gulf state. According to the Thai-based The Nation report:
December 30, 2015 Jakarta – Indonesia has extradited an Emirati Islamist activist who was sentenced to jail in absentia two years ago for allegedly plotting a coup in the Gulf state, an Indonesian police spokesman said.
The case underscores the desire of the United Arab Emirates, an oil-producing hereditary country closely allied to the West, to quell the perceived threat from Islamists five years after they gained ground throughout the region after Arab Spring uprisings.
‘Around three days ago, (Abdulrahman Khalifa bin Subaih) was sent home at the request of UAE Interpol because he did a violation in his home country,’ Indonesian police spokesman Agus Rianto told Reuters. ‘In Indonesia, he breached rules about anIndonesian ID,’ he added, without elaborating.
Subaih was sentenced to 15 years in jail in a mass trial.
An advocacy group which has criticised the UAE’s human rights record said 50-year-old bin Subaih was ‘kidnapped’ from a detention centre on the island of Batam on Dec 18.
Emirati diplomatic staff and Indonesian security forces then put him on a plane bound for Abu Dhabi, the Geneva-based International Centre for Justice and Human Rights said.
Bin Sobaih had carried out ‘social, charitable and political activities’ as a senior member of the banned UAE Islamistal-Islah, an association which the government says is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. Al-Islah denies any suchlink, but says it shares some of the Brotherhood’s Islamist ideology.
UAE officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the extradition.
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In July 2014, the GMBDW reported that officials in the UAE had arrested members of what was described as a cell controlled by Qatari intelligence that was attempting to re-establish the Muslim Brotherhood presence in the country as well as planning to aid an Al Qaeda linked group in Syria.
GMBDW coverage of related events in the UAE has included:
- The GMBDW reported in March 2014 that a court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had sentenced thee individuals to prison terms of up to seven years on various charges relating to aiding and abetting the Muslim Brotherhood in the UAE.
- The GMBDW reported in January 2104 that thirty men were sentenced to prison on charges of establishing and running a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UAE.
- The GMBDW reported in November 2013 that UAE had launched a trial of 30 Emiratis and Egyptians charged with setting up an illegal branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
- The GMBDW reported in July 2013 that 65 suspects charged by the UAE authorities on similar charges of setting up an illegal branch of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood had received sentences of up to 15 years.
- A post from June 2013 reported that 30 Egyptians and Emiratis had been charged in connection with that case.
- In January 2013, the UAE announced that it would try 94 people on charges of trying to seize power in that country.
Relevant resources include:
- In April, the Gulf News posted an article titled “Rise and fall of Muslim Brotherhood in UAE” that provides interesting detail about the operations of the Muslim Brotherhood in that country.
- In October 2013, Egyptian journalist Abdel Latif el-Menawy published an article titled “From Refuge To Rebellion, The Gulf’s Muslim Brotherhood” that looks at the history of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf countries and its relationship to the Egyptian organization.
- The New York Times reported in January 3013 on the continuing conflict between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.