Bahrain court jails 11 over police attack

Manama: A Bahraini court on Monday sentenced 11 Shiite demonstrators to five years in jail each for attacking police with iron rods and petrol bombs near Manama last year, a judicial source said.

The men were accused of taking part in an unauthorised demonstration in the Shiite village of Al Maameer, south of the capital, last June, the source said.

The prosecution had charged the demonstrators with assaulting a police patrol with “Molotov cocktails and iron rods”, according to the source.

Last year, authorities increased the penalties for those convicted of violence, introducing the death penalty or life sentences in certain cases.