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Police stand behind a barricade during an imposed curfew after scores were killed and hundreds injured in clashes over the allocation of civil service jobs, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 21, 2024
A COURT in the United Arab Emirates sentenced dozens of Bangladeshi nationals to prison, including three for life imprisonment, over protests against their home government in the Gulf country, state media reported today.
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal on Sunday handed 10-year prison sentences to 53 Bangladeshi nationals and an 11-year term to another Bangladeshi national, in addition to the three life imprisonments, according to the state-owned Emirates News Agency, WAM.
The court ordered the deportation of the Bangladeshis from the UAE following their prison terms.
“The court heard a witness who confirmed that the defendants gathered and organised large-scale marches in several streets of the UAE in protest against decisions made by the Bangladeshi government,” WAM reported.
On Saturday, authorities in the United Arab Emirates ordered an investigation and an expedited trial of the arrested Bangladeshi nationals.
The protests in the UAE followed weeks of demonstrations in Bangladesh by people upset about a quota system that reserved up to 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.
The country’s top court decided on Sunday to scale back the controversial system, in a partial victory for the mostly student protesters.
The UAE’s attorney general’s office on Saturday indicted the Bangladeshis on several charges, including “gathering in a public place and protesting against their home government with the intent to incite unrest,” obstructing law enforcement, causing harm to others and damaging property, according to WAM.
Bangladeshi nationals make up the UAE’s third-largest expatriate community.
Many of them are low-paid labourers seeking to send money back home to their families. The Emirates’ overall population of more than 9.2 million is only 10 per cent Emirati.
Political parties and unions are banned in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms. Freedom of speech is severely restricted and almost all major local media are either state-owned or state-affiliated outlets.
