Bahrain: appeals court more than doubles jail sentence of opposition leader

Manama: Bahrain’s Court of Appeals on Monday toughened a sentence against Ali Salman, the secretary general of Al Wefaq Society, the most important opposition force in the country. It did this by including a charge dropped last year by a lower court.Under the new ruling, Ali Salman will have to spend a total of nine years in jail after he was also convicted of the more serious charge of “promoting the overthrow of the political system through the use of force and threats.”

In June last year, the Higher Criminal Court dropped the regime overthrow charge and sentenced him to four years after he was convicted on the charges of “publicly inciting hatred, an act which disturbed public peace, inciting non-compliance with the law and insulting public institutions.”
However, both Ali Salman and the public prosecutor appealed the sentence, sending it to the Court of Appeals for review.
Ali Salman’s lawyers had asked for his full acquittal. Th prosecution appealed against the lower court's decision to throw out the charges concerning promoting regime change.