10 terrorism suspects to be tried on February 28

Manama, Feb. 4 (BNA): Chief of Anti-Terror Crime Prosecution, Advocate-General Ahmed Al Hammadi said the public prosecution has completed its investigations in the case of forming a group to carry out terrorist acts. The case came to light last year. Al Hammadi said that 10 suspects, seven in custody and three fugitives abroad, would be referred to the court on charges of joining and running a terrorist group, possessing explosive devices and tools used to make them and forearms, and training on using them. The case will be reviewed by the Fourth Criminal Court on February 28, Al Hammadi added. The case was opened on July 18 when the General Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Forensic Evidence received information about a terrorist group. Intensive investigation revealed that an individual, who died later in Iraq, recruited the suspects and formed a group with the purpose of committing terrorist acts in Bahrain. The individual sought to provide the recruits with training and coordinated with external parties to help some of them travel to Iraq and Iran where they were trained by members of the Revolutionary Guard and the Iraqi Hezbollah on ways to use weapons and explosives. Upon their return, they received weapons and products to be used in making bombs that had been smuggled into Bahrain. The group members hid the weapons and explosives in secret stores. However, following the issuance of search warrants by the public prosecution, the weapons and explosives were found inside the homes of some of the recruits and in a cache. The police also found 511 detonators and a car that was used by the group members to transport the weapons and explosives. Investigators found on the seized items fingerprints that matched those of the group members as well as explanations and guidelines on forming and managing terrorist groups and on ways to recruit members and to engage in secret communication between them. The guides also explained the various types of explosives and the way to make them and to use them to blow up cars and installations. One of the suspects whose fingerprints were found on some of the seized items had been charged in a separate case after he participated in a terrorist act that included exploding a device on Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmad, near the Nuwaidrat Roundabout on June 30, 2016 and in which a Bahraini woman was killed. The case against him was closed following his death.