Bahrain upholds death sentence for 'terror' convict

By Ahmed al-Masri

DOHA, Qatar (AA) - A Bahraini appeals court on Monday upheld a death sentence handed down earlier against a Bahraini citizen convicted of involvement in a 2016 bombing in Manama that killed one passerby.

In June of last year, a Bahraini criminal court sentenced one person to death and another to life behind bars for their involvement in “the deliberate murder of a woman due to the detonation of an explosive device."

Seven other defendants in the same case were slapped with three years each behind bars.

The nine -- whose names have not been released by the authorities -- were convicted on a raft of other charges, including “training in the use of weapons and explosives; perpetrating a terrorist crime with accomplices; harboring a wanted terrorist; and causing material damage for terrorist purposes," according to judicial sources.

Prosecutors also say that the convicts were led in their criminal endeavors by an Iran-based individual linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The case dates back to June 30, 2016, when a remote-control bomb -- with which the perpetrators had allegedly hoped to target a police patrol -- detonated outside capital Manama killing a 42-year-old high school teacher.

In 2011, Sunni-ruled Bahrain was rocked by demonstrations led by the country’s Shia opposition. The Bahraini authorities have repeatedly blamed Shia Iran for promoting the unrest.