Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's first high criminal court, presided over by judge Mohammad bin Ali Al Khalifa with the membership of judges Dia' Huraidi and Issam-Eldeen Mohammad Khalil and Naji Abdullah as secretariat, in its session on Thursday (October 8, 2015), over a case of 7 suspects accused of burning an ATM and possessing Molotov cocktails, sentenced 6 suspects to 10 years in prison and fined them 31,101 BD and 136 Fils, while acquitting one suspect of the charges raised against him.

The authorities alleged that the seventh suspect had agreed with the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth suspect to set an ATM of one of the banks in Hamad town on fire, claiming that the fifth and seventh suspects brought a plastic container full of petrol and Molotov cocktails and handed it to the others. They hid these materials in an abandoned house until the day of execution. The authorities also stated that the second suspect agreed with the first suspect to watch the road leading to the ATM.

Human rights organizations challenge the charges raised against the suspects 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.

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