Dubai: A Bahraini court Thursday sentenced eight activists to 15-year jail terms for forming a terror group, a judicial source said.
The criminal court also stripped the defendants of their citizenship after convicting them of “establishing and raising donations to fund a terror organisation named Bahraini Hezbollah”, the source said, citing the verdict.
The group’s name appears to link it to Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Shiite movement, though the verdict did not specify any connection.
The eight defendants were accused of forming the group in 2014, possessing weapons and attempting to kill policemen in Nuwaidrat, a village east of Manama.
They staged an unauthorised demonstration in Nuwaidrat in June 2014 and blocked the streets while one of the defendants opened fire at a police patrol, the judicial source said.
Two other defendants were jailed three years each for participating in the demonstration.
The verdict is the latest in the series of rulings meted out against Bahrain’s opposition activists, and it came days after authorities suspended the main Shiite opposition Al Wefaq group.
Bahrain has been shaken by unrest since security forces crushed a 2011 uprising demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.
Protesters still frequently clash with police in Shiite villages outside the capital.
