News / Persian Gulf

Bahrain court sentences 4 dissidents to 15 years in prison

Tuesday, 17 October 2017 6:13 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 17 October 2017 6:15 PM ]

This file photo shows the entrance to the building of Bahrain’s Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs in the capital Manama.

A court in Bahrain has upheld 15-year jail terms handed down to four citizens and revoked their citizenship as the Manama regime relentlessly continues with its crackdown on human rights activists and pro-democracy campaigners in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

On Tuesday, Bahrain’s Court of Appeal found the defendants guilty of collaborating with a foreign country, establishing and joining a terrorist group, training in the use of weapons and explosives, and importing munitions and explosives, Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported.

The same court upheld 15-year jail terms against seven anti-regime activists on September 28, after finding them guilty of killing a member of security forces and setting his patrol car ablaze with a Molotov cocktail during clashes in the village of Karzakan, located 20 kilometers southwest of the capital Manama, on December 17, 2015.

The court also pressed charges of illegal gathering and rioting in addition to possession of flammable materials against the convicts, and ordered them to pay 10,200 dinars ($27,835) altogether over damage inflicted on regime forces during the protest.

Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

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

On March 5, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.

The Bahraini monarch, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah, ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3.

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