Manama: Bahrain’s Court of Appeals has postponed to June 26 the re-trial of 13 people charged with plotting to topple the regime.
A lawyer must be appointed for defendant Abdul Jalil Singace, the court said.
Under Bahrain’s laws, a defendant must always be represented by a lawyer, and the court must appoint one if he does not have one, either by choice or for other reasons.
More witnesses will also be summoned for next week’s court apperance.
The re-trial was decided by the Court of Cassation in the high-profile case against 21 defendants, of whom seven are being tried in absentia.
The Court of Cassation on April 30 allowed Al Horr Al Sameekh to go home after his prison term decided by the courts of national safety was reduced from two years to six months.
The 13 defendants held in prison and the seven others being tried in absentia received last year terms ranging between two years and life in prison by the National Safety Court of First Instance.
They were convicted on charges of establishing and managing terror groups to change the state royal regime by force and to change the constitution, communicating intelligence with an overseas terrorist organisation to commit hostile acts against Bahrain as well as a number of other charges.
The National Safety Court of First Instance in June last year sentenced to life in prison Abdul Wahab Hussain Ali Ahmad, Hassan Ali Mushaima, Abdul Hadi Abdullah Al Khawaja, Abdul Jalil Abdullah Al Singace, Mohammad Habib Al Saffaf (Al Miqdad), Saeed Mirza Ahmad, Abdul Jalil Radhi Makki and the London-based Saeed Abdulnabi Al Shehabi who was tried in absentia.
The court also sentenced ten defendants to 15 years in prison. Two defendants were sentenced to serve five years in jail, while one defendant was sentenced to two years in jail.
The verdict was challenged by the lawyers, but the National Safety Court of Appeal in September confirmed the convictions and upheld the sentences.
