UAE court convicts 11 for helping al Qaeda affiliate

A United Arab Emirates court convicted 11 men including UAE, Syrian and Comoros nationals of helping to form an al Qaeda affiliate and sending fighters to join Syrian rebel groups, newspapers reported on Wednesday.

Four Emiratis among the 11 were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by the state security division of the Federal Supreme Court on Tuesday, the National newspaper reported.

The other seven, including Syrian and Comoros nationals, were handed sentences of between one and 15 years.

The 11 were accused of membership of al Qaeda's Nusrah Front Syrian wing and another militant Syrian opposition group, Ahrar al-Sham, and of collecting funds for these groups, the newspapers reported. A further four accused were acquitted on some counts, the newspapers said, without elaborating.