{"id":18491,"date":"2013-09-30T11:55:22","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T17:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=18491"},"modified":"2013-09-30T11:55:22","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T17:55:22","slug":"following-august-decree-of-martial-law-bahrain-court-of-injustice-sentences-50-after-mass-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=18491","title":{"rendered":"Following August Decree of Martial Law, Bahrain, Court of Injustice Sentences 50 after Mass Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bahrain said to sentence 50 Anti-Government Activists<\/strong><br \/>\n29 September, 2013 &#8211; Al Jazeera America<\/p>\n<p>A Bahrain court sentenced 50 people to prison Sunday after a mass trial for alleged links to a militant group blamed for bombings and other antigovernment attacks in the Gulf nation, a rights activist said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA group of Feb. 14 activists were sentenced to between five and 15 years in jail,\u201d Yousif al-Muhafda of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>The center said there were human-rights campaigners among those convicted &#8220;under the internationally criticized and vague terrorism law&#8221; and that the sentences added up to more than 400 years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was a sham trial with a political verdict. They should be released immediately,&#8221; the center&#8217;s acting president, Maryam al-Khawaja, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The defendants are accused of forming an illegal group opposing the political system, &#8220;training elements to commit violence and vandalism&#8221; and &#8220;attacking security men,&#8221; according to the charge sheet.<\/p>\n<p>The convictions mark the broadest blow yet to backers of the almost daily protests by the Feb. 14 movement, named after the date in 2011 when Bahrain&#8217;s Shia majority began an uprising seeking greater political rights from the country&#8217;s Sunni rulers and the deposal of the kingdom&#8217;s al-Khalifa dynasty.<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain&#8217;s head of public prosecution described the Feb. 14 group as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n<p>The verdicts could stir more unrest in the nation, home to the U.S. Navy&#8217;s 5th Fleet.<\/p>\n<p>The main Shia opposition party, Al Wefaq, called it a &#8220;black day for justice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mohamed al-Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, said 20 suspects were convicted in absentia. Charges included seeking to topple the ruling system.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of people have been arrested in Bahrain&#8217;s crackdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Asked for comment, an official told Reuters a government statement on the matter was being prepared.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/america.aljazeera.com\/articles\/2013\/9\/29\/bahrain-sentences50antigovernmentactivistsactivist.html\" target=\"_blank\">&#8230;source<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D18491&amp;text=Following+August+Decree+of+Martial+Law%2C+Bahrain%2C+Court+of+Injustice+Sentences+50+after+Mass+Trial&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bahrain said to sentence 50 Anti-Government Activists 29 September, 2013 &#8211; Al Jazeera America A Bahrain court sentenced 50 people to prison Sunday after a mass trial for alleged links to a militant group blamed for bombings and other antigovernment attacks in the Gulf nation, a rights activist said. \u201cA group of Feb. 14 activists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=18491#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[743],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18492,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18491\/revisions\/18492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}