On Monday, people from all walks of life
attended marches in Sitra to demand reforms and an end to the
decades-old rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.
Earlier in the day, a court in Bahrain sentenced nine anti-regime
activists to life in prison after convicting them of being allegedly
involved in an attack in November 2011 in the capital city of Manama.
Four of the defendants, who were present at the court, had
previously said that they were subjected to torture and mistreatment in
solitary confinement.
Five other defendants, tried in absentia, were handed additional
10-year jail terms for failing to hand themselves in. Life imprisonment
term in Bahrain is 25 years.
The verdict brought to 104 the number of pro-democracy protesters sentenced to lengthy jail terms in Bahrain.
Similar rallies were also held in the villages of Nuwaidrat and
Samahich close to Sitra, where protesters expressed solidarity with the
detainees and condemned the unjust sentences.
The Bahraini uprising began in mid-February 2011. Protesters
initially called for political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a
demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the
ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular
protests.
Scores have been killed, many of them under torture while in
custody, and thousands more detained since the popular uprising began in
the Persian Gulf kingdom.
