15-yr jail for bid to explode bomb

The High Criminal Court has sentenced three men accused of targeting the police with an explosive to 15 years in prison each. Another two defendants accused in connection with the same case were handed down 10 years in prison. Those received rigorous jail terms were found guilty of planting a bomb underneath burning tyres, targeting police officers.

But the remaining two were convicted of only possessing firearms. The bomb was planted during a riot in Nuwaidrat, where saboteurs set tyres on fire. Police officers arrived to control the mob and found a homemade bomb underneath the tyres. But it didn’t go off. 

Investigations led to the capture of the first defendant, who admitted to prosecutors during interrogation that he was participating in riots on weekly basis.

“I met my friends (the second and third defendant) in a store that was used to construct flammables and firebombs, and one of them (the second defendant) requested me to go to Bilad Al Qadeem to receive the bomb. I called the fourth defendant and I requested him to transport me by his car. We found the first bomb hidden behind a mosque,” the first defendant told prosecutors. 

“We took it with us and we went back to the store. We connected a SIM chip to the phones that was linked to the bomb. Next day, we placed tyres on the road and we set them alight to lure police officers into the area after we planted the bomb,” he added. “When we called up to the phone connected to the bomb, it didn’t detonate. We then got ride of it,” he added.