Bahrain Mirror: Bahraini Appeals Court upheld in absentia three-year prison sentence against 7 appellants over charges of assembly and riot.

The authorities claim that on January 19, 2015, the suspects, along with other unknowns, set fire to movable assets, endangering people's lives and properties and took part in an assembly of more than 5 people, aiming at disturbing public peace, using violence to achieve their aim

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.

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