Bahrain convicts 19 ‘Iran spies’

In this file photo, police vehicles are parked outside a mosque in Manama, Bahrain. A Bahraini court on Monday sentenced 19 Shiites to lengthy jail terms on charges of spying for Iran and plotting to overthrow the regime. (Reuters file photo)

DUBAI: A Bahraini court on Monday sentenced 19 people to lengthy jail terms on charges of spying for Iran and plotting to overthrow the regime, judicial sources said.
Eight people were sentenced to life in prison, nine to 15 years in prison and two to 10 years in jail for espionage and inciting public dissent, according to a statement released by the counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office.
Fifteen of those convicted were also stripped of Bahraini citizenship, the statement said.
The court found the group guilty of leaking information to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah and of receiving “material support” from the two forces.
They were also convicted of forming a cell to “incite the public against the government and call for regime change by force.”
The prosecutor’s office said the 19 belonged to Al-Wafaa movement, a little-known group which Bahraini authorities say is linked to the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah.