Hawzah News Agency- (Manama, Bahrain) An appeals court upheld a five-year imprisonment verdict against a Bahraini national on charges of causing an accident with a police vehicle. The court also ordered the defendant to pay 250 Bahraini dinars (approx. 665 dollars) in fines.

In another case, the appeals court sentenced nine people each to five years of imprisonment over allegations of beating a policeman, injuring an Asian national and taking part in a gathering of more than five people.

Bahrain’s Supreme Criminal Court also convicted six other citizens of participating in a gathering of more than five people and inciting violence, sentencing them to seven years in prison.

The developments come as human rights organizations have cast doubt on the independence of the Bahraini judiciary while all the defendants’ confessions seem to have been obtained under torture.

Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has seen a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February 2011.

End.