Overview
- Bahrain's High Criminal Court convicted 11 defendants and on Sunday sentenced nine to life and two to three years after trials on charges of collaborating with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
- Prosecutors said a fugitive linked to the IRGC recruited local operatives to surveil and film strategic sites and to recruit others for plans that prosecutors described as terrorist acts.
- Authorities told the court that forensic analysis of seized devices, witness testimony and financial traces supported charges that funds were moved from Iran to Bahrain using bank accounts and cryptocurrency.
- The verdict completes a stepped-up security campaign that began with mass arrests in March and included the recent revocation of dozens of citizenships in cases tied to alleged support for Iran.
- Human-rights groups have warned that the measures risk arbitrary treatment and statelessness for some Bahrainis while Gulf neighbours report parallel arrests of suspected Iran-linked cells.