(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Thirty three Bahrainis faced military court hearings on Sunday, on charges of illegal activities during weeks of protests that rocked the Persian Gulf island kingdom earlier this year, the state news agency said.
Opposition groups estimate about 400 people, most of them from the country's majority Shi'ite population, are on trial, but the government says the numbers are far less.
Bahrain's discriminator rulers, who host the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Manama, called in troops from fellow Gulf states to help crush protests in March. The government said the protests had a sectarian agenda and help from Iran, which the opposition denies.
Bahrain lifted emergency law last week, but tensions remain and the trials of dozens of politicians, activists and doctors has provoked more resentment among Shi'ites. Several villages have seen daily protests since last week.
Two detained members of the main Shi'ite opposition group Wefaq, Jawad Fairouz and Matar Ibrahim Matar, pled not guilty on Sunday to spreading false news to the media and joining illegal gatherings.
Their family said the trial was called without warning to them or their attorneys. The military prosecutor general has previously said attorneys can consult detainees after the first hearing, which determines whether defendants have a lawyer.
Relatives of Matar said they rushed to court after an assistant to their lawyer, who was at the courthouse, learned Matar was to appear in court. They missed the hearing but were allowed to visit him, the first time since he was detained.
"He said he was treated well and only beaten lightly once," a relative said. "He had on the same clothes as when he was taken ... He looked well, and healthy, but he is in a solitary confinement. He has spent 41 days in jail all alone."
Wefaq says some 50 people have already been sentenced, from light prison terms to two execution sentences.
Bahrain's official news agency reported seven more people were sentenced on Sunday, with prison terms of one to six years for convictions that ranged from illegally storing weapons to attempted murder of policemen.
Twenty people were brought in for another hearing on charges over the use of violence in protests that blocked off the kingdom's financial district, but their trial was postponed.
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