UAE court to deliver a verdict against 8 Lebanese detainees tomorrow

Eight lebanese men are scheduled to appear before an Emirati court tomorrow to hear verdicts on what Amnesty International have described as trumped-up terrorism charges.

The defendants stand accused of planning attacks in the Emirates on the orders of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed political organisation based in Lebanon.

Arrested between December 2017 and February 2018, the eight men, who are all Shia Muslims, went on to be held for over a year without charge in an unknown location.

Issuing an Urgent Action, Amnesty International said the accusations levelled against the men had been fabricated.

"These men were tortured, they were forced into making confessions," Sima Watling, a researcher for the Britain-based rights group, told AFP.

She added that the defendants, who had lived in the United Arab Emirates for years prior to their arrest, had routinely been denied access to their families and legal counsel since being detained.