Bahrain Mirror: The Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper, which has close ties with the Bahraini Prime Minister, said that the president of the first court of appeals decided not to bring the leader of the main Bahraini opposition group Al-Wefaq, Sheikh Ali Salman, from prison to court.

The newspaper added that the court was presided over by Abdulaziz Mokhtar Abdulrasoul with the membership of counselors Majdi Al-Deeb and Mostafa Abdulrahman and the presence of the Attorney-General Ousama Al-Awfi and Nawaf Khalkan as secretariat. The court decided to adjourn the appeals trial of the Secretary-General of Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Sheikh Ali Salman, until December 14, since the quorum of the courts' judges was not completed. The prosecution has to bring the appellant from prison.

It explained that the "hearing was not held on time despite the fact that the defence representatives, representatives of foreign embassies, family of the appellant and journalists were present. After half an hour, it was revealed that the suspect will not attend the hearing. At about 10:30 a.m. the hearing was held and the presiding judge addressed the panel saying: the quorum of the courts' judges was not completed, thus, the court ordered not to bring the appellant from his prison cell." He then adjourned the appeals hearing until December 14.

The defence panel asked the court to submit the plea they presented in the last hearing to Sheikh Salman. The court said that this hearing "is not for procedures. You have to submit what you want in the name of the court's president and the court will refer it to the Public Prosecution representative and if the request is related to the plea, you have to submit a written copy of it."

The newspaper then concluded that "the representative of the Public Prosecution, attorney Ousama Al-Awfi attended to enter his concluding plea, according to the last court hearing decision. However, adjourning the case led to postponing the plea until mid December. Concluding the appeal will not take place before the beginning of the new year, as it is expected that the case be postponed after the prosecution's pleading. Given that the suspect is the last to speak, and based on these expectations, the court will listen to the defence's response in January and issue the verdict in another hearing. The court of appeals is known for delaying the issuance of verdicts for a month, thus, it is expected that it will issue the verdict in February 2015."

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