10 get life imprisonment for terror-related crimes in Bahrain

Manama : The High Criminal Court has sentenced 10 persons to life imprisonment and revoked their citizenships on charges of forming a terror group and carrying out attacks, Ahmed Al Hammadi, Chief of Terror Crime Prosecution said in a statement yesterday. The ninth accused was additionally sentenced to one month in jail and a fine of BD 100 for illegally possessing a sword.

The men were accused of organising and managing a terror group contrary to the provisions of the law, possessing explosives and tools used in making firearms and training in the use of weapons and explosives. 

The accused received training in how to use weapons and explosives to commit terror crimes in the Kingdom.

Earlier, the Public Prosecution had received a report from the Investigation & Forensic Science General Directorate (CID) regarding the arrest of a terrorist group. 

According to the CID, an individual (before he traveled to Iraq where he died) recruited the accused Bahrainis and sent them to Iraq and Iran to receive military training on how to use weapons and explosives. It said the individual had formed a terrorist group in Bahrain to carry out terrorist attacks inside the Kingdom. He was able to escape outside Bahrain and before his death in 2014, he recruited the first, second and third suspects, all of them are fugitives living in Iran. He also recruited the fourth suspect who assumed the role of recruiting the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth suspects. He facilitated and arranged for the fourth, fifth and tenth suspects to travel to Iran to receive military training. After returning to Bahrain, he tasked them to receive shipments of weapons and materials to use in manufacturing explosives.

The fourth suspect, together with the fifth and seventh suspects, hid these shipments in a clandestine warehouse. The fourth, fifth and seventh suspects travelled to Iraq in early 2014 to receive military training to carry out terrorist attacks in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Several shipments of weapons and explosives were smuggled and seized in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

When arresting the suspects, various materials and devices used in manufacturing explosives were found and seized from their homes. Their clandestine warehouse, where they stored their explosive materials, was seized.

The Public Prosecution obtained the proof of their crime based on witness statements, confessions of suspects, technical evidence, and forensic reports. The defendants were referred to the High Criminal Court that deliberated the case in its sessions in the presence of their attorneys who were enabled to present their defensive arguments and provided them all the legal sureties before the court issued its above verdict.