Bahrain Mirror: The Bahraini High Court of Appeals upheld a first degree verdict sentencing an appellant to 5-year prison term over Diraz blast.

The first degree court sentenced 37 suspects to prison terms ranging from 5-15 years and acquitted 2 others.

The court handed down 15-year jail term to 4 suspects, 10-year jail term to 6 others and 5-year jail term to 27 others. The court also sentenced suspect to 6 months in prison and fined him 500 BD and acquitted two others.

Acting Attorney General Ibrahim Al Kuwari, announced that the Public Prosecution concluded its interrogations in Diraz 2 blasts which left 4 injured policemen and referred the case to the third high criminal court.

The authorities claim that on (April 24, 2012), the suspects prepared an ambush and planted two blasts in Diraz to attract the security men and kill them. The suspects were separated to 3 groups. They agreed upon each other to make riots to attract the policemen and attack them, aiming at killing them. The blasts left 4 injured security men.

The prosecution referred 39 suspects to the court, 18 of whom were not arrested. However, the arrest warrant against them remains in effect.

Human rights organizations challenge the charges raised against political detainees, since they doubt the independence of the judiciary, whose members are assigned by royal decrees, and since it issues sentences based on confessions extracted under duress and evidence presented by secret investigations and anonymous witnesses

Arabic Version