Bahrain Mirror: A Bahraini court sentenced a suspect (23 years old) in absentia to 7 years in prison over planting hoax bomb at a roundabout in Bahrain's Tubli.

The suspect refused to appear before the court in all the hearings despite of the summons sent to his address.

Bahrain's Fourth High Criminal Court presided over by judge Ali Khalifa Al-Dharani, with the membership of judges Mohammad Jamal Awad and Wael Ebrahim, and Ahmad Al-Sulaiman as secretariat, ordered the confiscation of seized items.

The Court said it was proved that the suspect alongside unknown others had intentionally set fire to a movable property when burning tires, endangering people's lives and properties, for a terrorist purpose. Unknown suspects had also planted a hoax bomb in a public place for a terrorist purpose.

The authorities said that at 8:30 pm on January 16, 2015, the suspect with unknown others planted a strange item resembling explosives, and set fire to 5 tires at a Tubli Roundabout, claiming that its investigations have led them to identifying the suspect.

Since 2012, the known riot cases which are listed under the riot act have been amended to apply to the terrorism act, as new terrorist aims and pretexts have been attributed to these cases, such as the attempted murder of policemen, breaching the provisions of law and putting people's lives and properties in danger, in order to harshen the sentences issued against protesters and activists.

Arabic Issue