Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's Fourth High Criminal Court, presided over by judge Ousama Al-Shathili and membership of judges Wael Ibrahim and Hussein Abdulmohsen and Ahmad Al-Suleiman as secretariat, issued sentences against 122 defendants ranging between 3 years and life sentences over Karana blast and attempted murder of 2 policemen.

The court handed down life sentences to the second, fourth, seventh and eleventh suspects, 3-year jail term to the first, third, fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, tenth and twelfth suspects, 3-year jail term to the first suspect and 10-year jail term to the second and eleventh suspects. The court bound the first, second, fourth, fifth, seventh and eleventh suspects to pay 1298 BD and 900 fils for the damages caused to the police patrol.

The court acquitted the third, sixth, eighth, ninth, tenth and the one hundred twenty second defendants of 4 charges; attempting to kill policemen, causing a blast, manufacturing explosives and damaging police patrols.

Human rights organizations challenge the charges raised against political detainees, 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