DUBAI (Reuters) - A United Arab Emirates court sentenced four people to death in absentia on Sunday for joining the Islamic State militant group, the UAE state news agency WAM reported.

They were among 11 citizens of the Emirates and other Arab countries on trial after some of them entered an Arab country and participated in the militant group’s activities, offered finances and ran a website to promote their ideas, WAM said.

The four given the death sentence were Emiratis and traveled to Syria, local newspapers added.

The UAE, an oil-exporting confederation of seven Muslim emirates bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman, is concerned about Islamist movements that appeal to religious conservatives and challenge its lack of democratic rule.

It has declared the Islamic State insurgent group a terrorist organization and taken part in U.S.-led air strikes on it in Syria.

In another case on Sunday, the court sentenced three people to 10 years in prison and subsequent deportation for providing supplies, communications devices and chemical materials to the Iran-allied Houthi movement in Yemen, WAM reported.

Three others on trial were acquitted, said WAM, which did not specify their nationalities.