Terrorist group's case court hearing set on October 3

Manama, Sept. 25 (BNA): The 169 suspects in the case of formation of the so-called "Bahraini Hezbollah" terrorist group will be put on trial by the Fourth High Criminal Court on October 3, Chief of Terror Crime Prosecution Dr. Ahmed Al Hammadi has said. The suspects, including 111 in custody, were charged with forming and joining a terrorist group, detonating a bomb, attempting murder, training on the use of firearms and explosives and handling, possessing, making and using explosives and firearms and transfer. Other charges included receiving and giving money allocated to the terrorist group, hiding ammunition and explosives and damaging public and private property. The Public Prosecution had received a report from the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) regarding the formation of a terrorist cell inside Bahrain at the behest of Iranian regime leaders who issued their orders to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard corps (IRGC) to unify the elements of various terrorist factions that carry out terror attacks in Bahrain. Orders included holding intensive meetings with the leaders of the terrorist groups and movements in Iran and coordinate with trained terrorist elements in other countries and providing various forms of financial, logistic and technical support to unite them under the banner of a single terrorist organization, the so-called "Bahraini Hezbollah." The purpose of the merger is to activate all affiliated terrorists who had received military training over the years and who were planted as dormant cells in order to use their capabilities and to offset the shortage in militarily trained leaders in Bahrain because of the arrest of most of them or the escape of some of them abroad. They were to share their military training on how to use weapons and make or implant explosives and detonate them remotely as well as their experience in setting up secret warehouses in houses and farms and other locations and smuggling, transporting, and hiding weapons and ammunition, materials and tools to manufacture homemade bombs. They were also to train terrorist elements in the Kingdom on how to use ‘dead spots’ in transporting, exchanging, delivering, receiving funds, weapons, ready for use or locally made ammunition and explosives and remotely-detonated explosive devices. Elements with military training were assigned to recruit and facilitate the sending of more Bahraini youngsters who are not known to the security agencies in order to undergo training in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon in militia training camps. They were later to carry out attacks to assassinate public figures, target security patrols and personnel, attack oil and service installations and vital economic establishments in order to undermine the Kingdom’s security and to weaken the confidence in the capability of security agencies and incite public opinion against the constitutional regime. They also aimed to stir panic, terrify citizens and residents, endanger lives, put their freedoms and security at risk and obstruct the public authorities’ from carrying out their duties. Investigations ordered by the Public Prosecution unraveled the implication of 169 suspects and. 111 were apprehended. The suspects confessed to having formed and joined a terrorist group, detonated explosives, attempted murder, trained on the use of weapons and explosives, illegally handled, possessed, made and used explosives and firearms, financed a terrorist group, damaged public and private property. The suspects' residences as well as caches where they hid the tools used to commit their crimes were searched. The prosecution’s investigations included victims’ testimonies, seized materials, suspects' confessions, technical and medical reports, and evidence based on the enactment by some of the suspects of how they committed their criminal acts.