Bahrain court upholds death sentence, life terms against anti-regime defendants

A court in Bahrain has upheld a death sentence and fourteen life terms handed down to 15 citizens as the Manama regime presses ahead with its crackdown on human rights activists and pro-democracy campaigners in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

On Thursday, Bahrain’s Court of Appeal found the defendants guilty of killing a member of the Jordanian forces assisting Manama in its crackdown on Bahrainis during clashes in the coastal village of Dumistan, which lies on the western shore of the country, in early December 2014.

The court also pressed charges of membership in a group responsible for killing a police officer and a civilian against the defendants, and accused them of making bombs besides possession and use of munitions against regime forces.

The appellate court also ordered the citizenship of all the defendants to be revoked. The accused have denied any wrongdoing, saying their confessions were extracted under torture.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom on February 14, 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.

Manama has spared no effort to clamp down on dissent. A month after the onset of the uprising, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Bahrain to assist the Manama government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown on anti-regime activists.

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