Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini High Court of Appeal upheld a first degree ruling in absentia, sentencing three appellants to 15 years of imprisonment, over charges of throwing Molotov cocktails at a police patrol in the town of Diraz. The High Criminal Court, regarding this case involving 22 individuals, had sentenced 21 of them to 15 years in prison, while declaring the innocence of one them. The authorities accused these Bahrainis of attempting to kill 3 policemen.

The court said in the rulings that the 18th defendant was declared innocent, since according to the court, nothing during the investigation showed that he had any direct link to the incident. In addition, it said that he was not caught at the crime scene, and therefore there weren't any real traces that linked his contribution to the alleged crime.

The Public Prosecution accused the defendants of "attempting to murder 3 policemen, that they planned ahead to kill by prepared weapons, and setting fire to their patrol vehicles", claiming that they previously knew where these policemen would be positioned. Also, the court report claimed that the defendants and other unidentified suspects attacked two policemen, describing it as a terrorist act. The court report further accused the defendants of disrupting security, and putting the lives and vehicles of people in danger, through using flammable material and Molotov bombs.

Since 2012, riot cases that go under the demonstrations and riot section of the penal code were adapted to apply to the terrorism law, if there were "terrorist" purposes behind them, such as attempted murder of a police officer, violating the provisions of law and endangering the lives of people and their properties, within the regime's framework of harshening penalties against protestors and activists.

Arabic Version