Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's Court of Cassation overturned on Monday (October 17, 2016) a death penalty verdict against 3 defendants, life-imprisonment to 7 others and revoking nationality of 8 of them over killing Emirate officer and 2 other policemen in Al-Daih.

The first court of appeals issued its verdict on (May 31, 2016) in the case that targeted police forces on March 3, 2014 with a bomb which killed the Emirati office Tariq Mohammad Al-Shahi and two policemen Mohammad Reslan and Ammar Abdo Ali Mohammad. The court upheld the death penalty verdict against the second, third and fourth defendants, life-imprisonment against the first suspect and those the fifth till tenth and revoking nationality of suspects from the first till eighth. The court also upheld the verdict that binds suspects to pay for the damages as well as confiscation of seized items.

The authorities claim that the suspects planted a remotely-detonable bomb on the highway and made riots to attract the policemen to the scene. As soon as the forces arrived, the suspects detonated the bomb, killing the victims and injuring 13 others.

Human rights organizations challenge the charges raised against political detainees, since they doubt the independence of the judiciary, whose members are assigned by royal decrees, and since it issues sentences based on confessions extracted under duress and evidence presented by secret investigations and anonymous witnesses.

Arabic Version