Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini High Appeals Court upheld a sentence of first instance, handing down a 5-year prison term to five defendants, over charges of assembling and starting fire in the Sanabes area.

The authorities claim that the defendants planned to burn tires and gather in Sanabes, so about 40 persons acquired a number of Molotov cocktails and staged an assembly in the area at approximately 8 pm, blocking Al-Budaiya road with burning tires. The authorities also allege that the "investigations proved the involvement of the suspects in the incident."

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