Cassation Court upholds death sentence for officers' killers

Manama : The Court of Cassation yesterday upheld the death sentence of three people found guilty of killing UAE army officer First-Lieutenant Tariq Mohammed Al Shehi, policemen Mohammed Raslan and Ammar Abdu Ali Mohammed.

The murder took place around 5pm on March 3, 2014 in the village of Daih near Manama. 

As per the case, the defendants planted an explosive device, lured the policemen to the scene and detonated it, killing three policemen. Eight terror suspects, including five in custody, were referred to the Criminal Court on charges of forming a terror group to undermine the provisions of the Constitution and to stall official institutions, and carrying out blasts to achieve their objectives.  The guilty recruited other suspects, made and detonated explosive devices and targeted security men to weaken the state, stir unrest and topple the regime. 

Six suspects were charged with joining the terror group. They, along with the second suspect, carried out terrorist activities, killed and attempted to kill policemen, damaged public properties, possessed, stored, handled and used explosives. Their aim was to carry out acts of terror, fund terror group and finance its activities.

The High Criminal Court deliberated the case and sentenced the three defendants to death and the remaining suspects to life in jail. Some of the defendants were stripped of their nationality. The verdicts were later upheld by the Court of Appeals and the case was referred to the Court of Cassation in compliance with the provisions of the Bahraini law that considers a death sentence automatically subject to referral to the Court of Cassation.

The Court of Cassation cancelled the sentence and referred the case back to the Court of Appeal to consider it anew. However, the Court of Appeals deliberated the case a second time and upheld the sentence “in view of the incontestable material and verbal evidence” and referred it to the Court of Cassation, which upheld the death and jail sentences.