MOSCOW, January 9 - RAPSI. UAE police have launched an interrogation into a number of women accused of committing crimes against the state, the Emirates News Agency reported Wednesday.

The women are alleged to have been members of a clandestine branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization banned in the UAE.

The clandestine branch was uncovered last July.

On July 15, 2010, the government announced that the organization's members had been arrested while preparing to overthrow the ruling regime.

The police later reported that the branch shared close ties with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The investigators believe the organization aims to overthrow regimes in the Persian Gulf using the "Arab Spring" model.

About 60 branch members, who have admitted their involvement in the so-called "Al-Islah movement" in the UAE, were reportedly arrested in September 2012.

Several other members of the branch were arrested in late December.

In early January 2013, UAE media reported that 11 Egyptians who managed the branch have also been arrested. They recruited Egyptians and locals to gather secret information on the UAE security apparatus and transferred funds to their parental organization in Cairo, according to police.

The Muslim Brotherhood is presently in power in Egypt and has demanded that the UAE release the arrested individuals.

The UAE government has thus far refused to comply.