Bahrain jails, revokes citizenship of 8 Shiites

A Bahraini criminal court jailed eight Shiites on Wednesday after convicting them of spying for Iran.

Six were sentenced to life imprisonment and two were jailed for 15 years.

All eight were found guilty of “joining a terrorist group, possessing arms, ammunition and explosives”, and training in their use, a judicial source said. They were all stripped of their Bahraini citizenship.

In recent weeks, Bahrain’s Sunni rulers have carried out an intensifying crackdown against leading figures from the kingdom’s Shiite majority.

Manama has repeatedly accused Iran of fanning persistent unrest among its Shiite community since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests for a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.

Scores of Shiites have been jailed on charges of involvement in the unrest.

Authorities have stripped at least 261 Bahrainis of their citizenship since 2012, according to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. They include the kingdom’s Shiite spiritual leader, Sheikh Isa Qassim.

Activists have said that those left stateless are usually given a one-year passport and a travel ticket to a foreign country.

* Agence France-Presse