BAHRAIN: COP KILLER GETS DEATH SENTENCE

The High Criminal Appeals Court upheld the death sentence given to a Bahraini man convicted in connection with killing a police officer.
The appellant, Maher Abbas Al Khabaz, 27, was earlier convicted of premeditated murder and attempted murder by the High Criminal Court. Two other appellants implicated in the same case have also lost their appeal against their life sentences.
Meanwhile, the Appeals Court downgraded the life sentences handed down to six other co-defendants to 10 years behind bars each on appeal.
Maher was sentenced to death for masterminding the attack in which policeman Mohammed Asif Khan Afridi was killed after he was shot with a flare gun from close range.
The incident happened while the officer was on duty in Sehla where he and his colleagues were trying to disperse a mob of 70 people armed with metal rods and petrol bombs.
It occurred at 10.50pm on February 14, 2013 during a surge of violence marking the second anniversary of anti-government demonstrations.
All of the defendants, aged between 18 and 33, earlier pleaded not guilty.
A forensic report stated that two flares fired from the same gun were found when the deceased was fatally shot.
It was claimed that the main defendant met six of the defendants, including two of his brothers and informed them that they were going to ambush policemen with Molotov cocktails, stones, metal rods and the flare gun, which would be used to kill the officers.
The High Criminal Court handed a death penalty to Maher based on four of the defendants’ confessions, prosecution witness testimonies, a medical examiner’s report and forensic report.