Court breaks record of viewed appeal requests

Manama

For the first time in the judiciary history of Bahrain, the Second High Criminal Court (Appeal) broke the record of the viewed appeal cases by a court in a day.

The court had viewed 197 appeal cases of 150 convicts yesterday alone, while it ordered to uphold imprisonment terms of 20 defendants.

Headed by Judge Abdulla Al Ashraf, the court witnessed an unprecedented congestion of appellants and lawyers, forcing security personnel to divide them among three separate batches.

Being the only specialised appeal court, the Second High Criminal Court is in charge of 10 lower courts and views around 100 appeals and 10 to 15 cases in a day.

A number of lawyers expressed their irritation about the current situation at the court, pointing to the fact that “only four judges are tasked to look into this large number of cases in a day, making the waiting hours seem unending.” The lawyers demanded to open another court to look into appeal requests and to increase the numbers of employees working at them, in order to facilitate the processes.