Manama: Bahrain’s appeals court on Sunday cut the jail terms of two policemen convicted of torturing to death a detainee after a 2011 crackdown on protests, a judicial source said.
The court reduced the terms of the men from seven years to three after a lower court had convicted them in December over Abdul Karim Fakhrawi’s death in custody in April 2011.
Fakhrawi was a publisher and had co-founded Al Wasat daily, which the authorities had briefly shuttered following the crackdown on month-long Shiite-led protests in mid-March that year.
A number of policemen are facing trials over claims of killing protesters or torturing detainees after a wave of arrests that targeted members of the Shiite majority.
On Monday, a court in the kingdom decreased the jail term of a policeman convicted of shooting dead a protester in February 2011 from seven years to three.
The policeman had been convicted of shooting dead protester Ali Musheime with birdshot, but the court said on Monday that the killing was not premeditated murder.
The authorities say they are implementing the recommendations of an independent commission of inquiry that confirmed allegations the security forces had used excessive force during the uprising.
