Dubai: A court in Bahrain has handed down sentences of up to life imprisonment against 57 persons accused of plotting attacks against police and other targets, state media reported.
The defendants were convicted on Thursday of forming an organisation in 2012-2013 that “used terrorism as a way to achieve its aims,” the prosecution said in a statement carried by the official BNA news agency.
The high criminal court found that the group had smuggled weapons and explosives into the kingdom and plotted attacks against police and vital infrastructure, as well as a foreign embassy, the prosecution said.
The Gulf Daily News said the targets included the Saudi embassy and the causeway linking Bahrain with neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
The court handed down five life sentences, 22 15-year terms, 29 10-year terms and one three-year term. Four defendants were acquitted.
Only 33 of the defendants are in custody. The rest were tried in absentia.
General prosecutor Ahmad Al Hammadi said all those convicted except for one were also stripped of their citizenship.
A judicial source said that most of the defendants are from the village of Bani Jamra, near the capital Manama.
