Bahrain Mirror: The Supreme Appeals Court, presided over by Mohammad bin Ali Al Khalifa, with the secretariat of Naji Abdullah, upheld a first-degree verdict sentencing defendants to life-imprisonment over detonating a bomb in Al-Shakhoura that, according to the authorities' claims, left an injured policeman.

The court bound the defendants to pay 3 thousands and 340 BD for the damages.

The court convicted the suspects because on October 10, 2015, they, along with others, planted a bomb in Al-Shakhoura and detonated it with the aim of intimidating people and for terrorist goal, which left an injured policeman. The court accused the suspects of manufacturing and acquiring, along with other unknowns, explosives without a license from the competent part aiming at using them to disrupt peace and for a terrorist goal. The suspects, along with other unknowns, were also accused of deliberately damaging two vehicles owned by the Ministry of Interior.

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