Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's First High Criminal Court, presided over by judge Mohammad bin Ali Al Khalifa with the membership of judges Dia' Huraidi and Issam-Eldeen Mohammad Khalil and Naji Abdullah as secretariat, declared a suspect not guilty after rejecting a sentence to imprison him for 5 years, as previously issued by a National Safety Court, over charges of attacking Al-Khamis police station.

The court said, regarding the grounds of its verdict, that it contradicts with the military prosecution's decision to bring charges against the appellant, adding that it doubts that he had committed the crimes attributed to him. The court also had doubts the validity of what was attributed to the suspect, as the case documents lacked evidence proving that he committed the crime brought against him. The documents only included statements of 3 suspects saying that the appellant was involved with them in the attack on the police station. Also, the appellant was not caught red-handed. His name as well was not mentioned among the perpetrators in the minutes nor in the investigations of the military prosecution.

The court added that the military prosecution assigned a lieutenant to conduct the investigations. He stated that his investigations did not lead him to other suspects, contrary to what he said in his previous investigations.

The court had doubts about the presented evidence, thus they were rendered invalid. As a result, the appellant is said to be innocent of the charges attributed to him pursuant to article 255 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The Military Public Prosecutor Yousef Rashid Flaifel said that the National Safety Court of First Instance was held on (October 5, 2011) and sentenced the suspects to 5 years in prison over attempting to set fire to Al-Khamis police station.

It is noteworthy that the state of emergency, known as the "National Safety" period, which took place in Bahrain. coincided with entrance of Saudi and Emirati forces to the island kingdom during March 2011 to clamp down on the pro-democracy protests. As a result, the civilian courts were canceled and the government resorted to military courts (National Safety Courts) that issued harsh sentences including life-imprisonment, noting that these courts did not rely on physical evidence.

The National Safety Period was lifted on June 1, 2011. Civilian Courts resumed their work to look into the cases of protestors. The civilian courts reconsidered all the cases that the national safety courts had looked into.

Arabic Issue