Bahrain court sentences 32 anti-regime activists to jail

A court in Bahrain has sentenced 32 anti-regime activists to jail over their alleged role in an attack on a police station in the capital more than a year ago.

The Fourth High Criminal Court handed down seven-year prison terms to 25 of the defendants, the Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported Wednesday.

The seven other defendants received jail sentences of three years.

According to the report, they were sentenced over their alleged role in an attack on Naim police station in the capital, Manama, back in December 2016.

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

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

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, 2017, 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.

Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3 last year.

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