Hawzah News Agency-All of the three defendants -- identified as Seyyed Majid Mish’al, Fazil al-Zaki, and Sheikh Mohammad Javad Shahabi -- were sentenced to two years in prison each.

Bahraini clerics have strongly denounced the Al Khalifah regime for violating basic religious freedoms and its relentless crackdown on Shia Muslims.

Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has seen a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February 2011. The Al Khalifah regime is engaged in a harsh crackdown on dissent and widespread discrimination against the country's Shia majority.

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded or detained amid Manama’s ongoing crackdown.

Amnesty International and many other international rights organizations have frequently censured the Bahraini regime for rampant human rights abuses against opposition activists and anti-regime protesters.

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