Manama: A Bahraini defence lawyer says a court in the Gulf island nation has sentenced 12 citizens to life imprisonment after finding them guilty of supporting terrorist activities and receiving training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Attorney Syed Hashem Saleh said Monday the court convicted them the previous day, and sentenced two others to 15 years in prison. Six of the 12 sentenced to life were convicted in absentia.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s interior minister, Shaikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, ordered Monday the dismissal of the country’s prisons chief after two inmates escaped from a main jail, his office said.
Shaikh Rashid formed a committee to investigate the jailbreak from the Jau prison, in southeastern Bahrain, to assess shortfalls in security measures, the ministry said.
He ordered the demotion of the official to the general security department, and appointed another officer as a caretaker under the ministry’s supervision.
The interior ministry did not disclose details about the prison escapees.
