Intelligence leak case adjourned to February

Manama : The High Criminal Court yesterday completed the hearing of arguments from Ali Salman Ali Ahmed, Hassan Ali Juma’a Sultan and Ali Mehdi Ali Al Aswad in the Qatar spying case. 

The suspects were accused by the Public Prosecution of exchanging intelligence information with a foreign country to carry out hostile acts against Bahrain, undermine the Kingdom’s political and economic status as well as its national interest to overthrow the political system.

The suspects were also accused of disclosing a defence secret to a foreign country, accepting money from a foreign country in return for providing it with military secrets and information about the internal situation of the country, spreading tendentious rumours and fallacies abroad to weaken the financial confidence in the Kingdom and jeopardise its
prestige.

The court heard the case in an open session yesterday, said Advocate General Osama Al Ufi. The first suspect attended the trial accompanied by his lawyers. The court presented the recorded telephone conversation between the suspect and the former Qatari Prime Minister.

The Public Prosecution demanded to confirm the suspect’s acknowledgement of the conversation, pointing out that it will use it in its pleadings to show the evidence proving perpetration of the
crimes.

The court decided to adjourn the case to February 19 and tasked the Public Prosecution to provide the original recording of the telephone conversation between the first suspect Ali Salman and Hamad bin Jassim which was included in the TV report that was listened at the court hearing yesterday. 

The court also ruled to carry out articles 1 and 3 of the decision issued on January 4, 2018.