Bahrain jails 19 more over unrest

BBC News, 5 October 2011

Bahrain Protests 

• Will Bahrain's Arab Spring bear fruit?
• Kingdom divided
• 'Island of fear'
• Doctors in danger

A special security court in Bahrain has sentenced 19 people to up to five years in prison over their alleged role in Shia-led anti-regime protests.

Demonstrators have been trying to keep
Bahrain's protest movement alive

The court sentenced 13 people to five years in prison and six people to one year, over incidents including an attempted attack on a police station.

But twenty medics who treated protesters and were also sentenced this week will be retried.

Officials said their case would be heard in the highest civilian court.

A wave of mostly peaceful protests swept Sunni-ruled Bahrain in February and March, but they were put down by force by the government, which called in troops from neighbouring Gulf states.

However, skirmishes have been reported regularly as protesters try to keep their movement alive.

Among those sentenced on Wednesday was a 16-year-old Iraqi football player, Zulfiqar Naji, the Associated Press reported.