Manama: A Bahraini court on Sunday postponed to Wednesday the appeals trial of four men sentenced to death and three to life in prison.
The National Safety Court of Appeals, made up of one military and two civilian judges, announced the postponement after it received pleadings from the lawyers.
The trial session was requested by the lawyers after they appealed the sentencing last month by the National Safety Court of First Instance of Ali Abdullah Hassan Al Singees, Qassim Hassan Mattar Ahmad, Saeed Abdul Jalil Saeed and Abdul Aziz Abdul Rida Ebrahim Hussain to death for their alleged role in the killing of policemen Kashef Ahmad Mandhoor and Mohammad Farouq Abdul Samad.
The court had also sentenced Eisa Abdullah Kadhem Ali, Syed Sadiq Ali Mahdi and Hussain Jaafar Abdul Kareem to life in prison for their alleged role in the twin killings.
In their closing statements before the initial sentencing, the prosecutor sought the death penalty for the seven defendants, but the defense team said that they should be acquitted.
Executions in Bahrain are very rare. In 1996, Eisa Qambar, 29, was executed by firing squad after he was convicted of killing a police officer during the 1990s unrest. The execution was the first in Bahrain in 20 years.
The sentencing last month is the first since Bahrain declared the State of National Safety, emergency Laws, on March 15 for three months.
