Bahrain Mirror: The Court of Cassation, in its ruling issued (on October 17, 2016) in its overturn against an appeal by Bahraini opposition leader, and al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Sheikh Ali Salman, said, "The appealed verdict did not show what was proved by means of the officiated videos to the court after watching them, and what the court listened to, the content of the confiscated videos, and what the defendant presented, which according to the verdict, the appellant approves its credibility. If the evidence highlighted is clear [in the videos] and used to confirm the conviction, he will be faulted in inertia. This is what the appeal approves, while this court is unable to monitor the correct application of law on the incident, and express its opinion regarding what the appellant states in his appeal."

The court clarified that "It was decided that all evidence related to this case are supposed to be addressed to the court, and clearly demonstrated in the verdict, since it is not enough to highlight them only."

It further added that the "High criminal court upheld during a hearing on June 6, 2015, in his presence, his innocence from what he was accused of in the first item, and sentenced him to prison for two years, based on the second and fourth charges he was convicted with, and for another 2 years based on the thirst charge. The defendant and the Public Prosecution filed appeals numbers 571 and 580 of the year 2015."

Moreover, the court said, "Based on the appealed ruling shows that after the case incident indicated that the appellant is convicted according to the statements of the officer (...), and according to what the court saw and heard in the seized videos, in addition to the videos presented by the defendant in court, adding to what the defendant acknowledged of speeches and words he said; [all that was taken into consideration] without including the content or effect of the video the court listened to."

The court of Cassation concluded, "Based on the aforementioned, the appealed verdict should be overruled, and referred without the need to look into the aspects of appeal. For these reasons, the court ruled: formally accepting the appeal, overruling of the appealed verdict by content, and referring the case to the court that issued it, to issue another ruling again."

Arabic Version