The Government of Bahrain jailed 51 people for setting up terrorist organisation

Bahrain’s High Criminal Court sentenced 51 defendants to jail terms ranging between five years and life imprisonment after convicting them of establishing, organising and joining a terrorist group.

The court also convicted the defendants of committing crimes as part of the terrorist group’s activities, Bahrain News Agency reported.

It also fined 17 convicts 100,000 dinars each and ordered three others to pay 52,400 dinars in compensation for the damages they caused and the confiscation of seized items. The court acquitted one suspect.

Earlier, the Public Prosecution conducted extensive investigation that found defendants guilty of organising themselves within a terrorist group established by some of them to commit terrorist acts in Bahrain on the orders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

The convicts were assigned to form and organise armed groups consisting of domestic elements to plan and carry out terrorist and sabotage operations in Bahrain.

The group members who are in Bahrain were arrested late last year by the General Department of Investigation and Criminal Evidence.

Further investigation and intelligence revealed that the 52 defendants, including 27 fugitives abroad, received financial support and funding from the Revolutionary Guards and that they were supplied with weapons, explosives, equipment and tools necessary to commit terrorist operations in Bahrain.

The news agency said the group members plotted to target economic and vital installations, security sites, and the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior and Defence Force. They were also assigned to travel to Iran and Iraq where they received military training in the camps of the Revolutionary Guards and the Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq.

They were also trained on how to lead the terrorist groups in Bahrain and instructed to recruit other terrorists to form separate clusters that would carry out the terrorist operations in the different areas across the Kingdom. The convicts were also trained militarily on the use of weapons, explosives and monitoring operations.

The court reviewed the case in public sessions in the presence of the imprisoned defendants and their lawyers during which it heard prosecution and defence witnesses.

Source: Gulf News