Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini High Court of Appeal upheld a first degree verdict issued against 9 appellants, sentencing them to 10 years in prison over explosion in Al-Maqsha' area.

A first degree court had handed down a 10-year prison term to 10 defendants over a the explosion of a homemade bomb while being moved by 3 persons to be planted in Al-Maqsha', targeting security forces. The blast left two of them dead and the third injured. The court also sentenced another defendant to a year in prison over charges of harboring a wanted suspect.

The Public Prosecution had referred the (11) defendants to court after accusing a number of them of detonating a bomb for terrorist purposes, joining an assembly of more than 5 persons aimed at committing crime and disrupting public security.

Human rights organizations challenge the charges raised against political detainees, 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