Manama/Dubai: A defence lawyer said that a Bahraini court lifted a travel ban against the head of the kingdom’s main opposition group.
Lawyer Abdullah Al Shamlawi said on Monday that prosecutors agreed to a defence request to lift the ban against Ali Salman, the head of the Shiite bloc Al Wefaq.
Salman was summoned by authorities in late December for questioning on allegations of incitement over comments made in a sermon. He was accused of using sectarian language, inciting hatred against the government and promoting rioting and vandalism.
He was let go but barred from travelling abroad while prosecutors considered the case.
The development comes less than two weeks after Salman and other opposition leaders met with Bahrain’s crown prince in talks aimed at diffusing nearly three years of unrest. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalida and Ali Salman had not met publicly in three years. Also on Monday, a Bahraini court upheld jail sentences of 10-15 years for opposition activists convicted of launching attacks on police and forming a “terror group,” a judicial source said.
In the first case, the appeals court confirmed 15-year prison sentences against each of 10 defendants convicted of attempting to murder four policemen, the source said.
They targeted the policemen in April 2012 in the village of Akr, near the capital Manama, according to the charges.
A lawyer said the verdict ignored accusations by the defendants that they had been tortured into giving confessions.
In the second case, the court upheld 10-year jail terms against each of three activists convicted of attempting to murder policemen in the village of Karzakan in February last year.
The defendants were accused of opening fire on policemen who were dispersing demonstrators in the village.
The court also upheld jail terms against five defendants in a third case, convicted of forming a “terror group” which prepared a car bomb that police uncovered in Sitra.
Two defendants have been jailed for 15 years, while the remaining three each received 10-year sentences.
