Bahrain Mirror: The High Criminal Court of Appeals in Bahrain has suspended the appeal of eight defendants, convicted of joining the terrorist ISIS organization to announce verdict on April 24.

The Court of Cassation had overturned the ruling issued against 8 out of 24 accused of joining the terrorist ISIS group, referring the case back to the court that issued the verdict.

The case involved 24 defendants at the beginning, including the organization's leader in Bahrain, who is at large in Syria. Investigations revealed that the first defendant recruited the second and third defendants who joined the ranks of the terrorist organization, adding that he helped the second defendant travel to Syria to receive military training by members of the organization.

Security investigations also confirmed that the accused assigned to a group of organization members in Bahrain carrying out terrorist operations inside Bahrain, such as launching suicide operations in places of worship similar to those carried out in neighboring countries by the terrorist organization. Eight suspects were arrested, referred to the Public Prosecution, interrogated and thus they confessed to the charges raised against them.

In June 2016, the first instance court sentenced the first defendant life imprisonment, while sentencing the 23 others to 15 years in prison, ordered the confiscation of the seizures and the revocation of the citizenships of thirteen defendants. Eight of the defendants appealed the verdict to the Court of Appeal. The High Court of Appeal upheld the decision to revoke the eight defendants' citizenships, commuting their sentence from 15 to 10 years' imprisonment, so the eight appellants challenged the ruling before the Court of Cassation.

Lawyer Abdulrahman Al-Khashram, one of the appellants' attorney, said that the appeal was filed by the defendants' attorneys regarding their confessions which were a result of physical and psychological coercion. The report of the forensic doctor of one of the appellants stated that he was subjected to injuries recent to the date of his arrest, which wasn't investigated by the Court of First Instance.

Arabic Version