Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini High Appeals Court upheld a 15-year jail sentence issued by a first degree court against 6 defendants over charges of setting fire to the Jidhafs Municipality building in October 2014.

The court claimed that the first five defendants, set fire, on October 16, 2014, along with other unknown suspects, to immovable property, endangering people's lives. The court; however, accused the sixth suspect of taking part in the incident by agreeing with the other defendants to commit the crime.

The authorities said that the Jidhafs Municipality building was torched by unknown persons on October 16. The security guard who was on duty heard cracking sounds. When he followed the source of the sound, he saw there was a fire and about 15 people were fleeing the site by climbing the fence surrounding the building.  

The authorities claim that they identified the suspects through investigations and footage from the surveillance cameras. The head of Bahrain's Public Security Tareq Al-Hassan said that the suspects were arrested after they were identified and that they confessed to the charges raised against them. They were then referred to the public prosecution.

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