Four jailed in Bahrain elections arson

Manama : Four suspects implicated in connection with an arson attack during the parliamentary and municipal elections campaigns in 2014 have had their five-year jail sentences each upheld. The defendants were involved in setting a car polishing shop afire, which was owned by a candidate in the parliamentary elections.  

Several then-candidates suffered arson attacks against their properties during the electoral campaigns, which were held between October and November 2014. Amongst them was Mohammed Akrawi, whose car polishing shop in Sitra was set deliberately on fire. 

However, only two of the four are in police custody, while the others are still at large. They were sent for trial by the Terror Crimes Prosecution on charges of arson as well as possessing firebombs and destroying a private property. One of the convicts admitted to committing the crime along with  other suspects, adding that they had been accustomed to making explosives. 

It’s worth to note that the attack destroyed two customers’ vehicles, which were parked inside the shop at the time of the fire. Judges at the High Criminal Court fined the defendants BD2,000 each, and ordered all of them except the fourth suspect to pay the damage costs to the victim.  

The attacks on candidates are believed to be part of a campaign of intimidation being waged by supporters of Bahrain’s political opposition, who boycotted the elections.