A court in Bahrain has sentenced an anti-regime activist to death and passed life imprisonment against nearly two dozen other political dissidents as the ruling Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its heavy-handed clampdown on pro-democracy protesters in the Persian Gulf kingdom. RNA - On Thursday, Bahrain's Fourth High Criminal Court passed the death penalty on a Bahraini national and sentenced 23 other activists to life in prison, the Arabic-language Lualua television network reported.
Furthermore, the court stripped all the activists of their Bahraini citizenship.
Manama has accused all the defendants of launching an alleged bomb attack in the area of the western coastal village of Dumistan back in 2014, which resulted in the death of a security officer, the report further said.
The court also ordered the third and fourth convicts to pay a fine of 200,000 dinars ($ 530,480) each.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.
They are demanding that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.
According to Press TV, Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.
Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown.
On March 5, 2017, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.
Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3, 2017.
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