UAE sentences Bangladeshi nationals to prison over protests against their home government

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced dozens of Bangladeshi nationals to prison, including three for life imprisonment, over protests against their home government in the Gulf country. The state-owned Emirates News Agency said 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. The protests in the UAE came after weeks of demonstrations in Bangladesh against a quota system that reserves up to 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.