Manama, May 6 (BNA): Chief Prosecutor Isa Al Ruwaie, the Acting Chief of the Terror Crime Prosecution, said the Court of Cassation upheld today the death sentence against two convicts and the imprisonment verdicts handed down to the other convicts who challenged the court ruling in the case of forming a terrorist group and joining it, training on using weapons and explosives for terrorist purposes, murder and attempted murder of policemen, importing, possessing and using explosives, fire weapons and ammunition, theft, resisting with force officials in charge of enforcing the law, escaping after arrest, helping convicts to escape from prison and hiding convicts sentenced to prison.
The High Criminal Court sentenced on January 31, 2018, two suspects to death and handed down jail terms of lifetime to nineteen suspects, fifteen years to seventeen suspects, ten years to nine suspects and five years to eleven suspects. The court also acquitted two suspects, ruled the revocation of Bahraini citizenship of 47 suspects and ordered to confiscate the seized items. The High Court of Appeal accepted in its ruling on January 28th, 2019, the suspects’ challenge of the verdicts in form, commuted the jail terms of four female suspects sentenced to three years in prison and upheld the appealed verdict. The convicts challenged the verdict before the Court of Cassation which ruled to uphold it.
The convicts were charged with forming and joining a terrorist organisation alongside other suspects, including twelve abroad (in Iran, Iraq and Germany) and 46 in Bahrain, including the ten fugitives who escaped from prison. The Public Prosecution accused the suspects of possessing fire weapons and explosives which were seized on a boat on the beach in Nabih Saleh. A warehouse for storing explosive devices, weapons and ammunition was also found in Sitra on December 1, 2016. The suspects also faced charges of attacking the Jaw Prison’s Reform and Rehabilitation Centre and helping convicts in terror cases to escape. A policeman died in the attack and many others were injured.
The suspects were also accused of stealing fire weapons on January 1, 2017, opening fire on a police patrol and injuring a policeman in Bani Jamrah on January 14, 2017, killing a policeman in front of his farm, in Bilad Al Qadeem, on January 28, 2017, attempting to escape abroad and resisting policemen by opening fire on them in the kingdom’s territorial water which resulted in the death of three members of the organisation on February 9, 2017.
The security bodies arrested many of the suspects and searched their homes and places used as warehouses where they seized explosives, fire weapons, ammunition, cars and boats used in carrying out terrorist acts and smuggling operations.
The High Criminal Court ruled the case and issued its afore-mentioned verdicts which were upheld by the Court of Appeal and confirmed by the Court of Cassation today.
AOQ