60 to face trial in Jaw prison attack case

Manama : Sixty people will face trial for forming a terror organisation in breach of law in the Jaw Reform and Rehabilitation Centre attack case in which 10 inmates escaped and a policeman was killed on January 1, Advocate General Ahmed Al Hammadi, the Head of Anti-terror Prosecution, said in a statement yesterday. 

Since investigation has been completed in the case, the sixty will face trial in the High Criminal Court on August 22 for charges including forming and joining a terrorist group, processing explosives, firearms and ammunition, training in the use of weapons and explosives with the aim of carrying out terrorist attacks and the deliberate killing of policemen, public prosecutor Ahmad Al Hamadi said. 

“The men carried out armed robberies to fund terrorist plans and attacked law enforcement officers. They also assisted and harboured convicts and runaway inmates,” Al Hamadi said in the statement.

Thirteen of the defendants had fled to Iran, Iraq and Germany and will be tried in absentia. Twelve  defendants are still at large in Iran and Iraq, one in Germany and 46 in UK, including the ten convicted inmates who escaped from Jau prison facility.

“The leaders and members of the group prepared and planned several terrorist crimes for the purpose of destabilizing public order and undermining the Kingdom’s security and national unity as well as obstructing authorities from carrying out their official duties,” the statement said. 

Investigations indicated the defendants had formed and established the terrorist group and that the wanted fugitives hiding in Iran and Iraq communicated with the group’s members inside the Kingdom in the prison and outside to recruit other members. They supplied them with explosives, firearms and ammunition of various types after smuggling them into the country. They supplied them cash for personal expenses and to finance the terrorist activities. They also trained alongside their co-members in Iran and Iraq on the use of weapons, explosives in the military camps of Iranian Revolutionary Guard to get ready to implement their terrorist crimes in Bahrain. The group leaders also supplied members the tools, weapons and explosives to carry out their plot. They also gave them the means to record the prison escape with drones in order to publicize the escape for propaganda purposes.

The security agencies arrested the suspects in accordance with the provisions of the Law for Protection of the Society Against Acts of Terrorism and searched their homes and their warehousing places. The security operation led to the seizure of large quantities of explosives, detonators, hand grenades, explosive moulds, Kalashnikov machineguns, pistols, ammunitions cars and boats used by the defendants in implementing the terrorist crimes and smuggling. 

Charges against the defendants

The defendants acquired and hid machineguns and explosives on a speedboat at Nabih Saleh and  stored explosives, weapons and ammunitions in Sitra.

Attacked the Jaw Reform and Rehabilitation Centre and enabled the escape of several convicts involved in terrorist crimes which resulted in the death of a policeman and injuries to several others

Stole weapons on January 1.

Carried out the gunfire attack that targeted a police patrol and wounded one policeman in Bani Jamra on January 14.

Assassinated a police officer in Bilad Al Qadeem on January 28 in front of his private farm.

Attempted to escape from the country, resisted arrest and fired at the police inside the Kingdom’s territorial waters that ended in the death of three members of the terrorist group on February 9.