AhlulBayt News Agency - The Bahraini high criminal court sentenced one defendant to 3 years in prison and 6 other to 10 over charges of assembling and setting fire to an armored police vehicle in Al-Ekr. The court also fined all the defendants 3709 BD and 820 Fils to be paid to the Ministry of Interior.
The Public Prosecution claimed that the defendants, on November 3, 2015, along with other unknown suspects set fire to the said vehicle, owned by Ministry of Interior, endangering people's lives and properties, took part in an assembly of more than 5 people, aiming at disrupting public peace and committing crime, and acquiring Molotov Cocktails, aiming at endangering people's lives and properties.
Human rights organizations challenge the charges raised against the defendants, since they doubt the independence of the judiciary, whose members are assigned by royal decrees, and since it issues sentences based on confessions extracted under duress and evidence presented by secret investigations and anonymous witnesses.
Since February 14, 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous rallies on an almost daily basis in Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa family to relinquish power.
In March that year, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on the peaceful protests.
Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others injured or arrested in the crackdown.
Amnesty and many other international rights organizations have frequently censured the Bahraini regime over the rampant human rights abuses against opposition activists and anti-regime protesters.
The US, which has its Fifth Navy Fleet deployed in the tiny island, and other Western government mainly turn a blind eye to the crackdown.
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