DUBAI: Bahrain’s highest court yesterday rejected the final appeal by nine medics against their convictions linked to anti-regime Shia-led protests last year and upheld their jail terms, the government said.
“The court of cassation... has rejected the appeals and upheld the previous court’s convictions and sentences of the nine accused,” said a government statement citing deputy attorney general Abdulrahman Al Sayyed.
The medics were part of a group of 20 doctors and nurses who worked at Salmaniya Medical Complex in the Bahraini capital Manama during the February 2011 uprising.
Nine medics were acquitted of all charges by a lower appeals court in June and two remain at large.
The remaining nine appealed their convictions in the kingdom’s highest court which according to the statement, upheld all their sentences, with consultant orthopaedic surgeon Ali Alekri getting the longest sentence of five years in jail.
Dr Alekri was found guilty of “possession and concealment of white weaponry (non-firearms) to serve a terrorist purpose, and for illegal assembly,” said the statement.
Ibrahim Damastani, a senior nurse who received a three-year jail term, was found guilty of “possession of a white weapon and illegal assembly”.
“This is a political trial and lacks impartiality,” Damastani said, charging that the court “did not even read the files of the case,” and challenging authorities to prove he had weapons.
“I would be ready to serve 20 years in prison, not just three, if they bring one piece of evidence or picture showing that I had a white weapon,” he said.
He called on foreign lawyers supporting the case of the medics to help take it to the Committee against Torture, that is part of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The remaining seven medics, who were convicted of lesser crimes, including illegal assembly and inciting hatred, were handed jail sentences of between one month and one year.
This was the final verdict and no other appeals can be heard. All nine medics have been free on bail since September last year.
The medics were first charged and convicted by a quasi military court specially formed in the aftermath of the government’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in March 2011.
Many initially received harsh sentences of up to 15 years.
Only the two medics who remain at large, Ali Hassan Al Sadadi and Qassim Imran, still face 15-year prison terms since neither appealed the original verdicts.
Many of the 20 medics -- 15 of whom are doctors -- alleged they were tortured in prison.
Earlier this month, the public prosecutor’s office charged seven policemen with torture and maltreatment of the medics, all of whom are Shias.
Yesterday, the High Criminal Court postponed a hearing in the trial of two of the police defendants facing the most serious charges of “torture and threats” against six medic detainees, lawyers said, adding both failed to appear in court.
Their next hearing is set for October 18, lawyers added.
The five remaining police officers facing charges of “maltreatment” are to be tried separately in a lower criminal court.
AFP
