A high court in Bahrain has overturned a ruling of death penalty in policemen murder case during a hearing on Monday.
According to the previous verdict two defendants were awarded death penalty and their five accomplices to a life imprisonment for killing two Ministry of Interior employees while on duty in March last year.
According to initial details, Cassation Court overturned the Court of Appeals ruling condemning two Bahrainis to death and five others to life in prison for their alleged role in the killing of two policemen in March.
The Court of Appeals will now have to look again at the case and issue a new verdict. The Cassation Court was the highest appeal court for the seven defendants who have appealed against the sentences delivered by National Safety courts.
The defendants have been charged with “deliberately killing” Kashef Ahmad Manzoor and Mohammad Farouq Abdul Samad, both working for the interior ministry. The defendants allegedly hit the policemen with large vans and then ran over them in an open area near the former Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Roundabout, popularly known as the Pearl Roundabout, the epicentre of the protests and the focal point of the demonstrations held in February and March.
The National Safety Court of First Instance ruled in late April that Ali Abdullah Hassan Al Singees, Qassim Hassan Mattar Ahmad, Saeed Abdul Jalil Saeed and Abdul Aziz Abdul Rida Ebrahim Hussain should be executed for their alleged role in the policemen’s death.