The United Arab Emirates on Saturday acknowledged it is conducting a mass trial of 84 inmates previously reported by dissidents as it hosted the United Nations COP28 climate talks last month.

The trial likely includes a prominent activist lauded by rights group abroad.

The state-run WAM news agency quoted the country’s attorney general, Hamad al-Shamsi, as saying the 84 defendants face charges of “establishing another secret organization for the purpose of committing acts of violence and terrorism on state territory.”

The statement did not name the suspects, though it described “most” of those held as members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Arab Islamist group long targeted in the autocratic UAE as a threat to its hereditary rulers.

Al-Shamsi said the accused all had a lawyer assigned to them and that after nearly six months of research, prosecutors referred the accused to trial. The statement said the trial was still going on.

Read more: apnews.com

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