Dubai: A Bahraini court has sentenced 12 people to up to 15 years in prison after they took part in a jailbreak earlier this year.
Two inmates who escaped from Jau prison in April were jailed for 15 years along with four accomplices, Northern Governorate Attorney-General Hussain Al Bouali said in a statement on Tuesday’s sentencing.
The others received prison terms ranging from five to seven years, according to the statement published by the official BNA news agency.
Seven of the defendants, including the two inmates who escaped, were also convicted of possessing “unlicensed” weapons.
The pair were being held over their alleged involvement in Shiite-led protests in early 2011 that were quelled by the kingdom’s government.
They were caught two days after their escape, which prompted the dismissal of the kingdom’s prisons chief.
Scores of activists have been arrested, tried and jailed since the failed 2011 revolt, which was inspired by the Arab Spring regional uprisings.
Protesters are frequently detained over unauthorised demonstrations and clashes with security forces in Shiite villages.
On Tuesday, a bomb injured two Bahraini policemen, authorities said, amid high tension after the opposition boycotted the country’s first elections since unrest rocked the island kingdom in 2011.
The Interior Ministry said the explosion in the small village of Deraz, west of the capital Manama, was a “terror blast”, but provided no further details.
