Top court in the United Arab Emirates sentences four locals to death after convicting them of joining ISIS jihadists in Syria.

The would-be jihadist found ISIS life wasn't all it cracked up to be

A top court in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday sentenced four Emiratis to death after convicting them of joining the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group in Syria, local media reported.

The four, who were tried in absentia, are part of a group of 11 defendants accused of "joining the terrorist Daesh group in an Arab country", the official WAM news agency said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Local newspapers said that the group had travelled to Syria.

They were also charged with "promoting" ISIS online, helping to finance the

group and insulting UAE leaders, WAM said.

Three other Emiratis, a Bahraini, a Mauritanian and a Syrian were handed jail sentences of between three and 10 years, the local Gulf News daily reported. Another Emirati was acquitted.

Abu Dhabi's Federal Supreme Court does not allow international media access to such trials.

The UAE is a member of the American-led coalition that has been bombing ISIS jihadists in Iraq and Syria since September 2014.

UAE authorities have enacted tougher anti-terror legislation, including harsher jail terms and even introducing the death penalty for crimes linked to religious hatred and extremist groups.

In July, the UAE executed an Emirati woman for the jihadist-inspired 2014 murder of an American school teacher in an Abu Dhabi shopping mall.

Her husband is accused of seeking to carry out attacks on targets including Abu Dhabi's Formula 1 circuit and has reportedly claimed to be the local leader of ISIS. He is currently on trial.

In another case, the same court jailed three Arabs for 10 years each after convicting them of ties to the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, WAM said on Sunday.

It acquitted three others for lack of evidence against them, it added.

The UAE is also playing a key role in a Saudi-led coalition that has been battling the Houthis and their allies in Yemen since March last year.

The UAE, which has increased its fight against terrorism in recent years, in 2014 blacklisted ISIS as a terrorist group, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian-based Al-Nusra Front.

AFP contributed to this report.