Al Arabiya to air film on UAE’s secret Muslim Brotherhood

Al Arabiya News Channel will broadcast on Sunday the first part of a documentary film about the United Arab Emirates' branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, providing an account of the group from its inception to dismantlement and subsequent prosecution.

“The Road to July 2nd” was released by the Geneva-based human rights group International Gulf Organization (IGO) at a press conference on Nov. 22 and Al Arabiya acquired the rights to broadcast it.

The documentary is divided in two parts. The first part of the documentary tackles how the secret group was formed in the UAE and its activities for the past 10 years up until it was broken up by state securities.

The second part provides insight into the trial of the group’s members, relying on their statements, confessions, witness testimonies and charges against them.

“For the past months we were closely following the secret organization’s trial. We are aware of the allegations that have arisen following the trial. It was the first time for such a trial to be held in the UAE and it attracted wide attention from local and international organizations,” said IGO director Mansour Lootah.

The production of the documentary relied on documents acquired from members of the organization which included confessions signed by them and video clips.

“All of the records used in the film were part of the evidence included in the case files which we were able to obtain,” said Ali Al Jabri, author and director of the film.

“We wanted to ensure that all concerned parties had absolute freedom to make statements without any restrictions,” Jabri said.

Al Arabiya News Channel will broadcast the first part of documentary film on Sunday Dec. 1 at 16:00 GMT (20:00 UAE time), and it will be rerun at 22:00 GMT (2:00am of December 2nd UAE time.”

The second part will broadcast at the same time on Dec. 8.

The English subtitled version of the documentary will be available on Al Arabiya News website.