Manama-Bahrain’s Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa dismissed any compromise regarding national security and stability, highlighting that the strict application of the law cannot be compromised even in well-established democracies. He added that the government would spare no effort to protect achievements and thwart any attempt to exploit the atmosphere of freedom and democracy.

Bahrain will never fall down and will confront conspirators and proponents of sectarian strife, he said.

This came at a time when the Bahraini judiciary continues to issue verdicts on several cases; the last was on Thursday as the High Criminal Court of Bahraini sentenced 45 defendants in two different cases related to terrorism.

In the first case, the court sentenced eight Shiites to 15-year jail terms and an additional BD 200,000 fine for two of them for forming a “terror” group.

The criminal court also stripped the defendants of their citizenship after convicting them of establishing and raising donations to fund a terror organization named “Bahraini Hezbollah.”

The eight defendants were accused of forming the group in 2014, possessing weapons and attempting to kill policemen in Nuwaidrat, a Shiite village east of Manama.

They staged an unauthorized demonstration in Nuwaidrat in June 2014 and blocked the streets while one of the defendants opened fire at a police patrol.

Two other defendants were jailed three years each for participating in the demonstration.

In the second trial, a Bahraini court jailed 13 people to 15 years each after convicting them of the attempted murder of policemen who came under attack when assailants hurled Molotov cocktails at a patrol.

Twenty-two others were jailed for three years each in the same case, while five others were acquitted, a prosecution statement said.

For his part, Chief of Terror Crimes Prosecution Advocate General Ahmed al-Hammadi said that the suspects were found guilty of running, joining and funding a terrorist group, possessing firearms, attempting to murder of policemen, taking part in illegal assemblies, rioting, and possessing explosive materials. Documents of the case indicate that the suspects, alongside others, set up a terrorist group under the name “Hezbollah of Bahrain” aiming at carrying out multiple terrorist acts, targeting the security personnel, rioting and posting their videos on social networks carrying the name of their group to intimidate and spread panic among the citizens and inciting terror acts. The documents presented to the court also showed that the suspects had received the necessary funding and had the required tools to support their acts of terror.