Bahrain Jails 9 for 20 Years for Policeman Kidnap

A special security court in Bahrain has sentenced nine people to 20 years in prison each after it convicted them of abducting a policeman, state news agency BNA reported Thursday.

"The Lower National Safety Court sentenced nine defendants accused of kidnapping one policeman to 20 years in prison," according to an English-language statement on BNA that did not give further details.

Defendants have the right to appeal the court's rulings within 15 days.

The court was set up under the state of national safety, a lower level of emergency law declared by King Hamad in mid-March, a day before an all-out crackdown on a month-long, Shiite-dominated protest demanding political reforms.

Last month, authorities said that 405 detainees have been referred to national safety courts, of whom 312 had been released.

The National Safety Appeals Court last month sentenced four Shiites to death and three others to jail for life for killing two policemen by running them over with cars during the protests.

Their case has drawn condemnation from Amnesty International, which urged Bahrain to halt the executions.

On Tuesday, nine policemen were hurt when a car hit them as they were dispersing a protest in a Bahraini Shiite village, BNA state news agency said.

Four of the policemen sustained critical injuries in the attack that took place in Nuwaidrat, south of Manama, said BNA quoting a police official.

Bahraini authorities have said 24 people were killed during the month-long unrest, most of them demonstrators.