Bahrain court gives life sentence to over dozen anti-regime activists
A court in Bahrain has sentenced 13 anti-regime protesters to life imprisonment as the ruling Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its heavy-handed clampdown on political dissidents and pro-democracy campaigners in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
On Tuesday, Bahrain's Fourth High Criminal Court found the defendants guilty over their membership in the al-Ashtar Brigades, which the Manama regime has designated as a terrorist organization, Arabic-language Lualua television network reported.
The court also revoked the citizenship of eleven of the convicts, and ordered seven of them to pay a fine of 700,000 dinars ($1.857 million) altogether.
Two other dissidents, among them an Asian national, were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.
They are demanding that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.
Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.
Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown.
On March 5, 2017, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.
Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3 last year.
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