Bahrain Mirror: The Foreign Affairs, Defense and National Security Committee of the House of Representatives approved a bill aimed at deeming the harboring of wanted persons by security authorities a "terrorist offense".

The proposed law provides for the addition of a "new crime" to Article 2 of the Protection of Society against Terrorist Acts Law, which is defined as "covering up for a convict or fugitive in terrorism cases or providing false information about this person (convict or fugitive) before the judicial or preliminary investigation authority."

The bill was submitted by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Ahmad Al-Mulla, and signed by MPs Khaled Al-Shaer, Adel Al-Assoumi, Jamal Daoud and Mohamed Milad.

For its part, the Ministry of the Interior said that it agreed with the principles and basics on which the bill was established, as the perpetrators of terrorist acts use weapons and explosives that threaten the safety and security of society, so covering up for the perpetrators of these terrorist crimes and hiding them enables them to commit other terrorist crimes and escape punishment, which constitutes a threat to the country's security and stability.

The penalties for this crime according to the law are as follows: "capital punishment or life imprisonment if the issued penalty for the crime is life imprisonment; life imprisonment or temporary imprisonment if the issued penalty for the crime is temporary imprisonment; imprisonment for not less than 15 years if the issued penalty is imprisonment for a period of not less than ten years..."

Arabic Version