DUBAI: A court in the United Arab Emirates has handed life sentences to 43 Emiratis for “terrorist” links, state media said Wednesday, after a mass trial heavily criticised by UN experts and rights groups.

Government critics and human rights activists were among the 84 defendants brought before the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal, most of whom have been in jail since a similar trial of 94 people in 2013, according to rights groups.

The Abu Dhabi court “sentenced 43 defendants to life imprisonment for the crime of creating, establishing, and managing a terrorist organisation” linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the official WAM news agency said.