Thirteen Bahrainis, some of them teenagers, were jailed for life, after they were found guilty of trying to kill policemen by attacking their vehicle and of taking part in an illegal protest, according to their lawyer.
Another man was jailed for 10 years on the same charges.
All of the convicted were accused of attacking two officers in
March 2012. The incident occurred as the group was allegedly
throwing Molotov cocktails at police during a protest in the
Shiite village of Bilad al-Qadeem, just outside the capital,
Manama.
"Of course I am going to ask for an appeal,” lawyer
Mohammed Tajer told Reuters on Monday. “Most of the accused
didn't even admit that they committed the crime."
Tajer said many of the defendants were 18 years old with the
youngest among them being only 16.
In a similar case, 26 Bahrainis were sentenced to 10 years in
jail each last week. They were accused of attacking a police
station with petrol bombs and iron rods in Sitra in Bahrain's
northeast in April 2012. A policeman was allegedly wounded in the
incident.
A photo journalist Ahmed Humaidan was among those 26 convicted,
according to the man’s lawyer Fadhel Sawad, who said his client
was innocent and had not even been present at the scene of the
attack.
The 14 sentences, handed out on Sunday, come days ahead of
Bahrain's Formula One Grand Prix, which has recently come to be
associated with increased protest activity in the small island
nation.
Anti-government activists have dubbed the Bahrain Grand Prix a
“race for blood.” The protesters claim the F1 event
overshadows the ruling Sunni royal family’s many human rights
abuses and repression of the country’s Shiite population.
The event was cancelled in 2011, the year activists launched
massive protests against the monarchy. In 2012 and 2013 the Grand
prix was held despite unrest.
Human rights organizations have during the last three years held
Bahrain under fire for its brutal crowd-dispersal policies. A
government tender seeking supplies of 1.6 million tear gas
canisters and 145,000 stun grenades was leaked in June. The document suggested the country
wanted more tear gas shells than the country’s population of 1.3
million.
The US has however been reluctant to criticize its long-term
ally, which hosts its Fifth Fleet.