DUBAI: A Bahrain court yesterday jailed five Shias for periods up to 10 years after convicting them of attacking a government building with petrol bombs, a judicial source said.
Three defendants were sentenced to 10 years in prison, and two others were jailed for three years over the attack on Dar Al Hukumah, the source said. Two others were acquitted.
Prosecutors accused the group of “attempting to kill security men by throwing petrol bombs at them,” according to the list of charges.
They were also accused of “igniting a fire that could have endangered lives, and taking part in an illegal assembly of more than five people to disturb security.”
The compound is the former headquarters of the government but it is now used by the foreign ministry as administrative offices.
Rights group Amnesty International has urged Bahrain to free opposition former MP Khalil Marzooq, accused by Manama of links to Shia “extremists”.
“Khalil Al Marzooq is a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned only for his vehement criticism of the government,” the London-based organisation said in a statement late on Wednesday.
“He must be immediately and unconditionally released,” Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director Hassiba Hadj
said.
AFP
