Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's Fifth High Criminal Court, presided over by judge Abdullah Al-Ashraf with the memberships of judges Mohsen Mabrouk and Motaz Abu Al-Ezz and Abdullah Mohammad as secretariat, sentenced three suspects to 15 years in prison over attempting to cause an explosion and a fire deliberately at a gas station near the Formula 1 racing track, and another to 3 years imprisonment, fining them a sum of 11767 BD for the damages.

The authorities claimed that five masked men attacked a gas station near the F1 track at around 2 am, setting fire to a number of tires after hurling Molotov cocktails, thus causing damages. They also accused the suspects of attempting to assault the security guards.

Human rights organizations challenge the charges raised against the defendants, since they doubt the independence of the judiciary, whose members are assigned by royal decrees, and since it issues sentences based on confessions extracted under duress and evidence presented by secret investigations and anonymous witnesses.

Arabic Version