MANAMA // A military court in Bahrain yesterday convicted four Shiite protesters and sentenced them to death for the killing two policemen during anti-government demonstrations last month in the Gulf kingdom, the state media said.
Three other Shiite activists were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the policemen's deaths.
The verdicts were the first related to Bahrain's uprising. The kingdom's Shiite majority has long complained of discrimination and is campaigning for greater freedoms and equal rights.
Faced with unprecedented political unrest, Bahrain's king declared martial law and invited troops from Saudi Arabia and police from the UAE to help quell the unrest after weeks of street marches and sit-ins in Manama.
The seven opposition supporters sentenced yesterday were tried behind closed doors on charges of premeditated murder of government employees. In an earlier hearing this week, Bahraini state media said the military prosecutor presented evidence that showed the defendants killed the policemen "on purpose" by running them over with a car.
Their lawyers denied the charges.
Witnesses addressed a tribunal, and a video allegedly showing the attackers in cars hitting police was played, the official BNA news agency reported.
The verdict concerning the killing of the policemen Kashif Ahmed Manzur and Mohammed Farouk Abdulsamad could be appealed, BNA said.
Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders and human rights activists have been detained since a "state of safety" rule was declared March 15.
On Wednesday, a Bahraini official said 405 detainees had been referred to military courts while 312 had been released. "Sixty-two criminal cases and 343 misdemeanour cases have been referred to the courts of national safety," said the head of the information affairs authority, Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.
He said 312 detainees had been released, "some for health reasons", and others after considering the period of their detention sufficient.
