Bahrain Mirror: The High Appeal Court rejected the objection of three defendants in a politically-motivated case, which includes 26 other defendants, since the three defendants refused to attend the court hearings.

The authorities claim that all the defendants agreed to plant a bomb to target police in the Bani Jamra area.

The court of first instance ruled:

1- Sentencing the third, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, twelfth, thirteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth defendants, in addition to the 21st to the 25th and 27th defendants to life imprisonment;

2- Sentencing the second defendant to 5 years in prison over charges raised against him;

3- Sentencing the eighth and twentieth defendants to 10 years in prison over charges raised against them;

4- Sentencing the third and seventeenth defendants to 15 years in prison over charges raised against them;

5- Sentencing the third, thirteenth, twenty-third, twenty-ninth defendants to 15 years in prison over charges raised against them;

6- Sentencing the first, second, fifth, seventeenth, eleventh, fourteenth, fifteenth, nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-sixth defendants to 10 years in prison over charges raised against them;

7- Sentencing the second defendant to 10 years in prison as well as another 10 years over charges raised against him;

8- Stripping the nationality of the second, eighth and twentieth defendants;

9- Fining the first to the seventeenth defendants a collective sum of 2782.130 Bahraini dinars for damages;

10- Confiscating seized items.

The 17 defendant, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 years in prison for possession of explosives, appealed the ruling. Thus, the High Appeal Court commuted his prison sentence to 10 years, also commuting the second appellant's sentence to 7 years from 10 for using explosives, while upholding the remaining penalties raised against them. They both along with the third defendant challenged the verdicts and did not attend the court sessions, so the court rendered the appeal they made void.

Arabic Version