A Bahraini military court ordered the death penalty for four men on Thursday over the killing of two policemen in recent protests, state media said, a move that could increase sectarian strife in a close US ally.
The ruling came amid heightened antagonism between Bahrain’s Shiite Muslim majority and its Sunni ruling family after the nation crushed anti-government protests last month with military help from fellow Sunni-led Persian Gulf Arab neighbors.
It was only the third time in more than three decades that a death sentence had been issued against citizens of Bahrain, a US ally which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
One of the prior death penalty cases came in the mid-1990s, during the greatest political unrest Bahrain had seen before this year. A protester was put to death by firing squad for killing a policeman during that time.
Three other defendants in the current case got life sentences, state media said.
The US, which critics accuse of not reacting forcefully enough to Bahrain’s political crackdown because of the tiny nation’s key strategic significance, issued a measured statement on the sentences.
“We strongly urge the government of Bahrain to follow due process in all cases and to abide by its commitment to transparent judicial proceedings,” US Department of State spokeswoman Heide Bronke-Fulton said in an e-mailed statement.
“Security measures will not resolve the challenges faced by Bahrain. We are also extremely troubled by reports of ongoing human rights abuses and violations of medical neutrality in Bahrain. These actions only exacerbate frictions in Bahraini society,” she said.
Rights groups and relatives of the condemned men, all Shiites, dismissed the proceedings as a farce.
“They were activists in their villages and we think they were targeted because of their activities,” said Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. “This will deepen the gap between the ruling elite and the population.”
Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah condemned the sentences, saying they were part of the “continuous crime committed by the regime in Bahrain against the people of Bahrain ... [who] are exposed to severe oppression because of their request for their legitimate rights.”
Bahrain’s state news agency said the verdicts could be appealed and defendants had “every judicial guarantee according to law and in keeping with human rights standards,” a statement disputed by relatives of the condemned men who attended the sentencing.
“Even the accusations contradicted each other,” a relative of one of the men sentenced to death said.
He said there were discrepancies between statements by prosecutors and coroner reports issued at the time of the killings.
Rights group Amnesty International said Bahrain should not use the death penalty.
Amnesty’s director for the -Middle East and North Africa Malcolm Smart said that the accused had been tried by a military court and could only appeal to a military court “raising great fears about the fairness of the entire process.”
At least 29 people have been killed since the protests started, all but six of them Shiites. The six included two foreigners — an Indian and a Bangladeshi — and four policemen.
The recent turmoil began with Shiite-led political protests in February demanding greater political liberties, a constitutional monarchy and an end to sectarian discrimination. A few Shiite groups called for the abolition of the monarchy.
Bahraini Shiites say the ruling family systematically denies them equal access to employment and land.
Bahrain, blaming the protests on regional powers including Shiite neighbor Iran, declared martial law and called in troops from Sunni-led Persian Gulf neighbors to back its forces.
Earlier this week it expelled an Iranian diplomat it said was part of a spy ring based in Kuwait, which last month sentenced two Iranians and one Kuwaiti citizen to death for espionage.
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