Bahrain’s weapons seizure trial adjourned till April 18

Manama: The High Criminal Court has adjourned the trial of 11 men, accused in connection with possessing more than a tonne of foreign “military grade” weapons and explosives, which were seized from a warehouse in Nuwaidrat, until April 18 to hear the closing arguments.

However, only seven of the Bahrainis are in custody, while the rest are still at large and being tried in absentia. The defendants, aged 20 to 35, are accused of establishing and being part of a terrorist group, weapons and explosives possession and training. From the detainees, only five appeared on Wednesday before the High Criminal Court, appealing not guilty.

Four of the accused men have reportedly received militia training at camps linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Hezbollah Brigades group in Iraq. More than 1.5 tonnes of high-grade explosives, including C4-RDX, TNT and other powerful chemical explosives were seized in the counter-terrorism operation on September 30 last year.

The defendants are said to have established a cell and they divided into two groups. The cell was formed by one of the defendants, while the two terrorist groups were run by two co-defendants.

The first group reportedly stashed huge cache of explosives and weapons in a rented house in Nuwaidrat. They also used the house as a workshop, fitted with specialised machinery to cut and make tools used in making weapons and explosives.

Police officers seized explosive devices, high explosive materials, hand grenades, guns, large welding and bomb-making machines, according to the court files.  The second group was allegedly assigned with receiving the smuggled weapons and explosives shipments from Iran.