Bahrain Mirror: A Bahraini court decided to release 140 individuals arrested in Diraz raid carried out by Bahraini authorities to crush the protest outside the highest religious leader in the country, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, on May 21, 2017, that left 5 killed citizens and hundreds of detainees and injured.

171 defendants appeared before the First High Criminal Court, in the biggest case on terms of number of defendants whose charges ranged between attacking police, acquiring Molotov and using force with security men.

According to sources, all of those who were released were only charged of assembling around Sheikh Isa Qassim's house.

The court decided to release 140 detainees under 200 BD bail and ordered the continued detention of 24 others. Meanwhile, it adjourned the case until February 12 to assign a defence for a group of defendants and bring those who didn't attend the session.

According to a local newspaper, 151 defendants attended the session, while 20 others refrained from attending. As the courtroom does not embrace this large number of people, the defendants were put in another court room and were divided into 11 groups. They were brought by groups with their lawyers who requested to release them under any guarantee set by the court.

The newspaper said that one of the defendants is a lawyer and that his coworkers defended him and demanded his release so that he can defend himself.

Detainees pending investigations told their families in phone calls that they were forced to sign on charges including "attacking security men", "damaging public properties" and "acquiring Molotov".

The security authorities released on 3 rounds number of those who were arrested in Diraz raid, however, about 200 of them are still in prison.

The authorities have been holding Sheikh Isa Qassim under house arrest, since they carried out the attack on Diraz.

Arabic Version