Bahrain sentences six to death for 'assassination plot'

Bahrain’s top military court sentenced six men to death on Monday after convicting them of charges including plotting to assassinate the Gulf state’s armed forces chief, state media reported

A judicial source told AFP that all six of those sentenced to death on Monday were Shia.

Bahrain News Agency said that one of them was a serving soldier before his arrest and that all six were also stripped of their citizenship.

The court sentenced seven other defendants to seven-year jail terms and deprived them too of their citizenship. Five men were acquitted.

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Only 10 of the defendants are in custody, BNA said. The other eight are on the run – either inside Bahrain or in Iran or Iraq.

Since crushing Shiite-led street protests in 2011, Bahraini authorities have cracked down on all dissent, banning both religious and secular opposition parties and jailing hundreds.

Human rights watchdogs say that counter-terrorism legislation has been abused to prosecute many peaceful opposition figures.

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