MANAMA: Bahrain sentenced eight prominent activists and opposition leaders to life in prison Wednesday on charges of plotting a coup during protests in the Gulf island kingdom earlier this year. Seconds after the verdict was issued, one of 21 defendants lined up in grey prison suits shouted: “We will continue our peaceful struggle.” Other defendants responded by shaking their fists and shouting “peaceful, peaceful”. Police officers hustled them out of the courtroom. Relatives of some of the defendants shouted “God is Great”, and one woman was dragged out of the chamber. Among those who received life sentences was dissident Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the hardline opposition group Haq, and Abduljalil Al-Singace, from the same party. Haq joined two other groups in calling for the overthrow of the monarchy during mass protests in February and March. Abdel Wahab Hussain, head of Wafa, another group that called for a republic, was also given a life sentence. Ibrahim Sharif, leader of the secular leftist Waad party, received five years in prison. Waad and Bahrain's largest opposition group Wefaq had called for reform of the monarchy. Small protests broke out in some villages after the verdicts, residents said, but were quashed by police using tear gas and sound grenades. Activists vowed more rallies. Representatives from several European embassies as well as the United States were in the courtroom, where other defendants received prison terms ranging from two to 15 years. The charges ranged from incitement to attempting to overthrow the government by force in collusion with “a terrorist organization” working for a foreign country. Wefaq, in a news conference after the verdicts, said it was concerned about the success of dialogue under current conditions, and left open the possibility of not attending the talks at all. Spokesman Khalil Al-Marzouq said Wefaq would not meet the government's Thursday deadline for responding to the invitation to dialogue, and could not say if Wefaq would ultimately attend. “These sentences do not fit with an atmosphere of dialogue ... Those people are a critical portion of the movement. How can there be a dialogue while they are in prison?” Marzouq also argued that political reforms would be diluted by the sheer number of representatives, 250, invited to talks, not all of them from political groups. He complained that the opposition would be a minority. T he government has said that all political groups should be represented equally at talks.
