Awaght- Security forces in Bahrain attacked dozens of people protesting death sentences and seven life terms handed down to a group of political dissidents.
Manama suburbs were scene of fierce clashes between security forces and protesting people who came to the streets after Bahraini courts declared harsh sentences against political opposition figures.
The protesters threw Molotov cocktails and firecrackers at armored police vehicles. The marchers also set some tires on fire.
Earlier in the day, Bahrain’s Court of Cassation upheld three death sentences and seven life terms against 10 defendants after alleging that they had carried out a bomb attack west of Manama in March 2014, which killed an Emirati officer and two Bahraini policemen.
The trial of distinguished Shiite cleric and opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman was also adjourned till mid-December by the same court. Sheikh Salman is the secretary general of the country’s dissolved main opposition bloc al-Wefaq National Islamic Society.
Bahrain’s Supreme Court of Appeal increased Salman’s jail term to nine years from the original four years on May 30.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom on February 14, 2011.
They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.
On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Bahrain to assist the Manama government in its crackdown.
Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown on anti-regime activists.
