Bahrain court gives life sentence to nine anti-regime activists
A court in Bahrain has sentenced nine anti-regime protesters to life imprisonment and handed down prison sentences to several others as the ruling Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its heavy-handed clampdown on political dissidents and pro-democracy campaigners in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
Bahrain’s attorney general Ahmad al-Hamadi said the Fourth High Criminal Court sentenced six defendants to life in prison on Tuesday after finding them guilty of “having received training in the use of munitions, possession of explosive devices and weapons for terrorist purposes, hiding convicted citizens and entering and leaving Bahrain.”
Hamadi added that six defendants were sentenced to ten years in jail, one was given a five-year jail term and three others received three-year prison sentences. The court also stripped three of the political dissidents of their citizenship, and ordered a dozen of them to pay a fine of 500 dinars ($1,326).
Separately, the same court found three anti-regime protesters guilty of “having received training in Iran and Iraq” and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The trio ware also ordered to pay a fine of 300 dinars ($795).
It also sentenced a dissident to seven years in prison and handed down five-year jail terms to two others. The court revoked the citizenship of five of the convicts as well.
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 monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3, 2017.
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