ARAB NEWS: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: A special appeals court in Bahrain upheld death sentences Sunday for two people convicted of killing policemen during anti-government demonstrations in March.
A report by the Bahrain News Agency said the court upheld death sentences against Ali Abdullah Hassan Al-Singace and Abdul Aziz Abdul Redha Ibrahim Hussein, who were accused of killing the policemen intentionally by running them over with a car.
BNA identified two other accused whose death sentences were reduced as Qasim Hassan Mattar Ahmed and Saeed Abdul Jalil Saeed.
Bahraini state media last month aired government-produced videos that including clips of purported confessions of the policemen’s killings. They also included testimonials from alleged relatives of one of the slain policemen and a taxi driver killed in the unrest.
The case was the first related to this year’s unrest, which was inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
Capital punishment is extremely rare in Bahrain and is typically not applied to the country’s citizens. A Bangladeshi man was executed last July after being convicted of premeditated murder. » | Adam Schreck | AP | Sunday, May 22, 2011
