Bahrain court sentences six to jail over anti-regime protests

A court in Bahrain has handed down prison sentences ranging from seven to ten years to six anti-regime campaigners over their alleged involvement in an attack on Aal-e Khalifah regime forces in the Persian Gulf Arab kingdom.

On Friday, Bahrain's Fifth High Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Ibrahim Al Zayed, sentenced five defendants to ten years in jail and another to seven years behind bars on charges of possession of explosives during an anti-regime rally in the village of Ma'ameer on June 16, 2015, Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported.

The court convicted the first five defendants with arson, participation in a banned gathering of more than five people and committing acts deemed to undermine public security.

The sixth defendant was found guilty of collaboration with the quintet, including the provision of explosive materials for one of the defendants.

Separately, people staged rallies across Bahrain following the Friday Prayers in condemnation of the regime forces’ attack on the supporters of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim in Diraz.

The protesters took to the streets in the villages of Saar, Eker, Nuwaidrat, Abu Saiba, As Sahlah al-Fawqiyah, Sanabis, Karbabad, Ma’ameer and Karzakan in addition to A'ali town and Bilad al-Qadeem suburb of Manama to express their solidarity with the prominent clergyman and his followers.

Bahrainis carried national flags and chanted slogans against the ruling dynasty in Saar village.

In Nuwaidrat, regime forces used tear gas and birdshots to disperse the protesting crowd.

SS