An Abu Dhabi court on Tuesday allowed a defendant in the trial of dozens of Islamists accused of allegedly plotting to seize power to seek medical treatment abroad, the justice ministry said.
During the hearing, the court "accepted the request by one of the defendants to hand her over her passport so she could travel abroad for medical treatment," according to the ministry statement published by the official WAM news agency.
Out of the 94 defendants in the case, 86 including 13 women appeared in court on Tuesday. The rest are being tried in absentia. The next hearing was set for April 30.
The women defendants have been on bail since the trial, which is closed to foreign media, began on March 4.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, called on US President Barack Obama to press UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan to "reverse the worsening human rights situation in the country," when they meet in Washington on Tuesday.
"Obama should raise concerns with Al-Nahayan about severe violations of fair trial rights, allegations of torture, and the laws and practices that foster exploitation of the UAE's sizable migrant population," said HRW.
"The US should use its leverage as a key trading partner and ally to press the UAE's leaders to end rights violations," said HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson.
"The backdrop to the two leaders'... meeting is the UAE's fundamentally unfair mass trial of 94 critics of the government, the unpunished torture by its state security services, and an escalating crackdown on free speech," said HRW.
Prosecutors say the accused are linked to the group Al-Islah, which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Attorney General Salem Kobaish said they would be tried for "having created and led a movement aimed at opposing the basic foundations on which the state's political system is built and at seizing power."
The trial is the largest in the history of the UAE, which has not seen any of the widespread pro-reform protests that have swept other Arab states, although authorities have boosted a crackdown on dissent and calls for democratic reform.
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