Dubai: A Bahraini court on Wednesday sentenced 12 opposition activists to 15-year jail terms for attacking a car warehouse during an unrest in the kingdom, a judicial source said.
The 12 men were found guilty of setting fire to the warehouse in an area near the capital Manama in February 2012.
The court also accused the men of taking part in an unauthorised demonstration and possessing Molotov cocktails, and handed the group a fine totalling 383,000 dinars ($1 million, Dh3.67 million) for the 59 cars damaged in the warehouse.
Another defendant was cleared of the charges in the case.
Lawyers for the defendants rejected the charges, saying their clients had made their confessions “under torture,” the judicial source added.
Security forces crushed a Shiite-led uprising demanding democratic reforms in Bahrain in March 2011.
But sporadic protests have broken out across the island since then and authorities have banned demonstrations in Manama.
At least 89 people have been killed since the protests began, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.
