Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini Fourth High Criminal Court, presided over by judge Hamad bin Salman Al Khalifa with the memberships of judges Diaa Al-Huraidi and Isam Eldeen Khalil and Naji Abdullah as secretariat, sentenced two defendants to life in prison over detonating two bombs and acquiring firearms and ammunition at Al-Ekr entrance and 6 others  to 15 years in prison while acquitting one defendant.

The authorities claim that the first seven suspects "agreed to manufacture several locally made bombs to detonate and harm security officers. The suspects gathered on April 2, 2014 in one of the suspects' houses and manufactured several bombs and then planted one at one of Al-Ekr's entrances and another at Al-Hassawi and decided to get a group of people to do riots, assemble and block streets to attract security forces. The third suspect detonated the bomb, so the security officers retracted then entered again, thus the first suspect detonated the second bomb planted at Al-Hassawi and fled.

Human rights organizations challenge the charges raised against the defendants, 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