Court to hear bus bombing case on October 19

Manama : The High Criminal Court will hear on October 19 the terror bombing case that targeted a security bus on King Hamad Highway, in which several security men were injured, according to Isa Al-Rowaie, Chief Prosecutor at the Anti-terror Crime Prosecution. The incident happened on February 26.

Twenty-five defendants, including 14 in custody, are charged in the case, he said, adding that the Anti-terror Crime Prosecution have completed its investigations and filed chargesheet. 

The suspects face charges ranging from joining a terror group, carrying out explosions, attempted murder of security personnel, illegal possession, handling, storage and training on the use of weapons, explosives and firearms, terror financing and the destruction of public property. 

The Public Prosecution had earlier received a report from the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation (CID) regarding the establishment of a terrorist cell inside Bahrain. 

Some of the leaders of the so-called “Saraya Al-Shtar” - Al-Ashtar Brigades - terrorist group whose leaders are mainly fugitives who live abroad and continued their activities. They hatched terror plots and recruited elements inside the country to establish and run a new terrorist cell. 

The cell members were trained militarily in Iran and Iraq on the use of weapons, explosive making, monitoring vehicles of security forces and prominent figures and vital locations in Bahrain, to prepare warehouses and storage locations around the country, to hide firearms and explosives smuggled from abroad to use in implementing the plans of the terrorist group. 

Members of the terror group had sufficient expertise and capacity to implement the group’s plans aimed to target several prominent figures and security commanders, to spread chaos and panic in the community and to prevent the security forces from carrying out their duties. They supplied these elements with the necessary funds, weapons, explosives and firearms to carry out their terrorist crimes.

At the request of the Public Prosecution, security investigations were carried out and they concluded that 25 suspects had participated in the terrorist group. 

The arrested suspects confessed to the charges levelled against them.

In some of the suspects’ homes and hideouts, tools and materials they used in committing their crimes were seized. The Prosecution’s investigation relied on the victims’ testimonies, investigations, officers who carried out the arrests, seized materials, confessions of the suspects, technical and medical reports, and photographic evidence conducted with some of the suspects on how they committed their crimes which matched their confessions.