Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's Fifth High Criminal Court, presided over by judge Abdullah Al-Ashraf with the memberships of judges Mohsen Mabrouk and Motaz Abu Al-Ezz and Abdullah Mohammad as secretariat, sentenced 4 defendants to 10 years in prison over charges of manufacturing a homemade bomb, having possession of shotguns and plotting to target policemen in Al-Qaria in the Northern Governorate.

The Public Prosecution claimed that the defendants, in 2015, along with other unknown suspects, acquired explosives without a license, aiming at using them to disrupt public peace for a terrorist purpose, and acquiring, along with others, arms and ammunitions without a license from the competent authority, aiming at using it to disrupt public peace.

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