Bahrain Mirror: The Chief of Bahrain's Terrorist Crimes Prosecution, Attorney-General Ahmad Al-Hammadi, stated that the Fourth High Criminal court convicted on Tuesday (June 28, 2016) 11 defendants over charges of "attempting to murder policemen for a terrorist purpose, committing arson, acquiring ammunition, assembling, rioting, acquiring Molotov cocktails and causing damages." The court sentenced the first six defendants, the eighth and eleventh to 15 years in prison and the seventh and ninth to 7 years. Meanwhile, it handed down a 3-year jail term to the tenth suspect, fined him 500 BD and ordered the confiscation of seized items.

The prosecution claims that it relied on hearsay evidence of the attesting witnesses and testimonies of suspects as well as the medical and technical reports. It referred 10 of the suspects arrested to the high criminal court and ordered the arrest of the eleventh fugitive.

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