Death sentence for terrorists upheld

Chief of the Terror Crime Prosecution Advocate General Chancellor Dr Ahmed Al Hammadi said the High Court of Appeal yesterday issued its verdict in the case of forming a terror group.

The defendants were earlier convicted of undergoing training in using weapons and explosives for terror purposes, murder and attempted murder of policemen, importing, possessing and using explosives, fire weapons and ammunition and theft. The court upheld the death sentences of two suspects while commuting the sentences of four female suspects to three years in prison.

The Fourth High Criminal Court sentenced on January 31, 2018 two suspects to death, nineteen suspects to life in jail, seventeen suspects to fifteen years in prison, nine suspects to 10 years in prison, eleven suspects to five years in jail, acquitted two suspects, revoked the citizenship of 47 suspects and ruled to confiscate the seized items.

Details of the case, according to the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID), show that ten convicts escaped from the Reform and Rehabilitation Centre at Jaw prison on January 1, 2017, which resulted in the death of a policeman from the prison’s guard force. Investigation showed the formation of a terrorist organisation which was set up and joined by many suspects, including 12 in Iran, Iraq and one in Germany.

Forty-six suspects in Bahrain, including ten who ran away from the prison, planned many terrorist crimes to undermine public order, jeopardise the kingdom’s security, undermine national unity and hamper public authorities from exercising their work. Investigations also revealed that the suspects who are at large in Iran and Iraq maintained communication with members of the organisation in the Kingdom inside and outside the prison to recruit other members and provide them with explosives, fire weapons and ammunition after smuggling them into the country.