A Bahraini court
sentenced a Shiite citizen to death and jailed 22 others for life Thursday for
forming a “terrorist group” that killed two people, including a
policeman. This is the second such ruling this week in the tiny
Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom, where members of the Shiite majority population have
led an uprising.
The court also revoked
the citizenships of the 23 convicts and fined two of them ($530,000/480,000 euros), terror crime prosecution chief Ahmed al-Hammadi said
in a statement. Judicial sources said that all the defendants were Shiite
and that 16 were tried in absentia, without giving further details.
Hammadi said members of
the group were convicted of carrying out bombings in two Shiite villages last
December. One of the bombings, in Damistan village, killed a Jordanian
policeman working in Bahrain under a security and training exchange agreement.
The other one in
the nearby village of Karzakan, killing an elderly Bahraini man. Both
bombings were carried out by the same “terrorist group” formed by the
defendants and “specialised in making explosives to target policemen,” Hammadi
said. Meanwhile, an appeals court upheld the death sentence Thursday
against a Shiite convicted of forming and leading a similar “terrorist group” that
killed a policeman in a bombing in the Shiite village of Aker last year,
Hammadi said.
The court also
confirmed stiff jail sentences handed down in April to 11 other members of the
group. Seven of them have been sentenced to life, and four others to 10
years, said Hammadi in a statement. The appeals court also approved revoking
the citizenship of all the defendants convicted of attempting to kill three
other policemen.
On Tuesday, Bahrain
handed down sentences ranging from five years to life in prison to 29 people
for the attempted murder of a policemen in a bombing later in December
2014. Attacks against police are common in Bahrain, a Western ally and
home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, across the Gulf from Iran.
The kingdom has been rocked by the Shiite-led
uprising since February 2011, with demands ranging from a constitutional
monarchy to overthrowing the ruling Sunni dynasty altogether. Scores of
opponents have been detained, with many facing trial, while others convicted of
involvement in violence have been handed heavy sentences, including loss of
citizenship and life in prison. (Source Vanguard)