IS members’ appeals rejected

The Cassation Court, Bahrain’s highest court, yesterday rejected the appeals filed by eight defendants convicted of joining the Islamic State (IS). The appellants were earlier sentenced to 10 years behind bars each, while their Bahraini nationality was as well revoked. The eight men were among 24 defendants held guilty in connection with this case, but many suspects are still at large and were held guilty in absentia.

Among the fugitives is the Islamic State’s (IS) ideological leader Turki Al Binali who was handed down life imprisonment by the High Criminal Court. The US-led coalition had released a statement last year, stating that Turki Al Binali had been killed in an airstrike in Mayadin, Syria.

His co-defendants were given 15 years behind bars each by the High Criminal Court. However, the High Appeals Court reduced the sentences issued against the appellants but upheld the revoking of their nationality before taking their case to the Cassation Court. The defendants were all tried on grounds of joining the IS. Thirteen of the defendants had also their Bahraini nationality stripped in the process.

The others’ citizenship had been already revoked by a state-issued decree. Aged between 16 and 42, the defendants were charged in October last year with forming a cell that had links with the IS group, plotting suicide attacks and recruiting fighters for the jihadist organization.

The defendants are said to have been plotting to carry out a suicide bombing at a local mosque. However, 16 of the suspects are still at large and they are being tried in absentia. The mastermind of the cell was Turki who is believed to have recruited dozens of Bahraini youth and sent them to front-lines outside the country.