Dubai: A Bahraini accused of spying for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards unit has had his 10-year jail sentence confirmed by a court of appeal, the state news agency BNA news agency reported.
The sentence, passed in July 2011 by a lower court, was confirmed on Sunday by the Court of Appeal in Manama, the report said.
The convicted man, who has not been identified, was accused of passing “military information and identifying sensitive sites in Bahrain” to two Iranian diplomats posted to Kuwait, according to local media.
The reports said he was recruited as a paid spy by the diplomats when he visited relatives in Kuwait, with the information he supplied passed on to the Revolutionary Guards.
Gulf Daily News cited prosecutors as saying he was paid more than BD27,000 by the two Iranian diplomats in Kuwait for photographing the homes of people working at the US Naval Base in Juffair as well as other military and economic installations in Bahrain. He reportedly used the money he made to set up a cleaning company and salon, according to an intelligence agent. The agent also claimed the defendant had several bank accounts in Kuwait.
Judges in Bahrain also convicted the two Iranian diplomats, employed at the Iranian Embassy in Kuwait, in absentia, according to the paper.
Relations between Iran and Bahrain have been strained since Manama two years ago with the help of Gulf troops, mainly from Saudi Arabia, put down a Shiite-led uprising in the kingdom.
