Bahrain Mirror: A Bahraini High Appeals Court upheld in absentia a five-year prison sentence issued against a appellant over charges of burning and damaging a police patrol vehicle.

The High Criminal Court had sentenced 9 suspects to 5 years in prison after convicting them of deliberately setting fire and causing damage to a police vehicle, fining them a sum of 645 BD to compensate for the damages.

The Public Prosecution claimed that the defendants intentionally set fire to a vehicle owned by the Interior Ministry on May 20, 2013, threatening people's lives and public property. The prosecution further alleged that a group of at least 5 persons joined an assembly aimed at disrupting public security, and acquired inflammable materials for the purpose of threatening people's lives.

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