Bahrain jails 8 opposition leaders for life

A special Bahraini court on Wednesday sentenced eight Shiite opposition activists to life in prison for "plotting to overthrow" the kingdom's Sunni regime, state news agency BNA reported. The National Safety Court of first instance also jailed 13 others for terms ranging from two to 15 years on similar charges, BNA added. The eight activists jailed for life include Hassan Mashaima, head of the Shiite opposition Haq movement, and Abdulwahab Hussein, who leads the Shiite Wafa Islamic Movement, as well as Shiite rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. Activist and Haq member Abduljalil al-Singace, who was released in February after six months in jail, was also sentenced to life. Ibrahim Sharif, the Sunni leader of Waed secular group, who played a prominent role in the Shiite-led month-long protest that demanded democratic reforms and was quashed in mid-March, received a five-year jail term, BNA said. Sharif and several leading opposition figures were arrested in the wake of the crackdown on protests, which challenged the regime of the Shiite-majority kingdom that is ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty. Nine of the defendants had been in custody on similar charges in the past before being set free under a royal pardon in February aimed at calming protests in the kingdom. Mashaima, who was abroad, returned to Bahrain following the pardon. Said Abdulnabi Shihab was also sentenced to life in absentia. Six other defendants who are abroad and being tried in absentia were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Scores of suspects face trial over charges linked to the month-long protests in a semi-martial court set up under a "state of national safety" decreed by King Hamad a day before protesters were evicted from a Manama's square in mid-March. Authorities in the Sunni-ruled Shiite-majority Gulf state last week lifted the state of national safety, or emergency, imposed at the time of the crackdown. Hundreds of Shiites have been referred to courts over the protests. Four people have been sentenced to death and three others to life in prison over the killing of two policemen. Nine others were jailed for 20 years after being convicted of abducting a policeman. Bahraini authorities have said 24 people were killed during the month-long unrest, most of them demonstrators