Manama: The trial of a police officer accused of killing a protester has been adjourned to May 27.
Salah Abbas Habib Mousa, 36, reportedly died from shotgun injuries to his chest, stomach and thigh in April last year.
His body was found by a labourer working on a farm who said that he saw the man’s body on the roof of a building in Shakoora, a village to the west of the capital Manama.
A probe by the Special Investigations Unit concluded that the police officer had shot Mousa and referred his case to the court.
However, the High Criminal Court was told that the officer fired the pellet shots as his police patrol came under attack from protesters armed with firebombs and metal rods.
Bahrain has been rocked by a string of clashes between the police and protesters since the dramatic events that occurred in February and March 2011.
The interior ministry has pledged to investigate formally all cases in which one or more of its personnel are involved and to put them on trial in case they are charged.
An ombudsman’s office was set up to look into grievances by Bahrainis and expatriates against interior ministry staff.
The ministry has launched a series of reforms to instil a new positive culture in dealing with people following the publication of a report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), an international panel that looked into the incidents in 2011.
