Bahraini Courts Give Prison Sentences to Dozen Reform Activists

Courts in Bahrain have handed down prison sentences to at least 12 anti-regime protesters as the ruling Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its heavy clampdown on political dissidents and pro-democracy activists in the kingdom.

Bahrain’s Fourth High Criminal Court sentenced three of the defendants to five years in jail, while four others received three years in prison, Arabic-language Bahrain Mirror news website reported.

The court found the anti-regime activists guilty of “assaulting police officers, setting fire to a police patrol car and illegal gathering” in the small village of Abu Quwah.

They were also ordered to pay a fine of 378 dinars ($1,000) for the damage of the police patrol car owned by the Ministry of the Interior.

The same court also upheld a three-year prison sentence against a political dissident on alleged charges of making a fake bomb threat in Tubli village.

Separately, Bahrain’s Supreme Criminal Court sentenced two defendants to three years in prison after convicting them of insulting and attacking a policeman and a lieutenant at Dry Dock detention center. Two others got a month in jail each.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.