DUBAI: A Bahraini court yesterday sentenced 11 Shia demonstrators to five years in jail each for attacking police with iron rods and petrol bombs near Manama last year, a judicial source said. The men were accused of taking part in an unauthorised demonstration in the Shia village of Al Maameer, south of the capital, last June, the source said.
The prosecution also charged the demonstrators with assaulting a police patrol with “Molotov cocktails and iron rods”, according to the source. Dozens of Shias have been tried over incidents of unrest following Arab Spring-inspired protests in mid-February 2011, during which demonstrators called for reforms in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
The Shia-led protests led to a nationwide crackdown a month later, backed by Saudi-led Gulf forces which rolled into Bahrain in support of the ruling Al Khalifa family. Three years on and Bahrain, home to the US Fifth Fleet, remains deeply divided and demonstrators frequently clash with security forces in Shia villages outside the capital. Last year, authorities increased the penalties for those convicted of violence, introducing the death penalty or life sentences in certain cases.AFP
