Bahrain court jails 4 Shiite Muslims allegedly over bomb

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A Bahraini court jailed on Wednesday four Shiite Muslims 15 years each after allegedly convicting them of detonating a bomb that wounded an Asian worker in Manama, a judicial source said. The ruling is the third tough sentence since Sunday and brings to 91 the number of Shias jailed in four days over violence, amid criticism from rights watchdog Amnesty International.Two of the defendants were in the dock, while the other two remain at large, said the source.The four were allegedly accused of “forming a terrorist group, attempted murder, and (carrying out) bombings,” according to the charge sheet.Prosecutors say they planted two roadside bombs in November last year in Manama’s al Adliya district. One bomb exploded near a rubbish bin wounding an Asian worker, while the second one near an electricity generator was defused.On Sunday, a Bahraini court handed jail terms of up to 15 years to 50 activists, including a prominent Shia Iraqi cleric, convicted of participating in protest and some one for forming a clandestine opposition group.Amnesty had slammed the ruling against them as appalling and demanded a probe into allegations that some were tortured.On Monday, another court jailed 37 pro-democracy protesters for up to fifteen years each over similar convictions. In August, King Hamad decreed stiffer penalties for “protests” in the country rocked by a Shia-led uprising since 2011.Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have staged numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa regime to relinquish power.Manama’s human rights record has come under scrutiny over its handling of anti-regime protests that erupted across the Arab country in early 2011.According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested since March 2011.Physicians for Human Rights say doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-regime protesters. At least 113 people have been killed since the protests erupted in 2011./129