Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's Court of Appeals sentenced on Sunday (November 4, 2018) opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman and senior opposition officials Sheikh Hassan Sultan and Ali Al-Aswad to life in prison for "communicating with Qatar."

The court annulled the acquittal of Sheikh Salman and the two others from the charges raised against them.

Bahrain had accused the three dissidents of spying for Qatar on the grounds of their participation in talks to end the crisis in the country in early 2011, as part of a US-Qatari initiative for a political solution.

The opposition had announced that King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa had been a partner in the negotiation process and that the communications were conducted with his knowledge.

The Deputy Secretary-General of Al-Wefaq Society Sheikh Hussein Al-Daihi said that the former Foreign Minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, was with the King of Bahrain when he contacted Al-Wefaq Secretary-General.

The charges were based on those phone calls, from which parts were cut out and broadcast on state television, after the eruption of the Gulf dispute with Qatar a year prior.

The defense team had asked the court to air the full recordings, yet it did not respond to the request.

The report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), appointed by the king, confirmed that the calls had been made under a Qatar mediation to settle the political conflict in Bahrain.

Arabic Version