MANAMA, 15 July 2004 — Bahrain said it had arrested six men on suspicion of planning bombings of government and economic sites.
The Interior Ministry said yesterday in a statement that the men were taken back into custody after authorities found evidence in confiscated computers that they had “completed their plan and prepared to carry out terrorist operations.”
“They planned to carry out bombings on some government, economic and tourist facilities to spread chaos and fear and harm the national economy and foreign investments,” it said.
Six of the men were arrested late last month on suspicion of supporting Al-Qaeda and planning attacks, but were freed due to lack of evidence at the time.
Abdullah Hashim, a lawyer representing four of the detainees, said the charges were politically motivated.
“All the information given is old and was extracted last year when some of them were first arrested on similar charges,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“The charges have been revived due to the US move to recall nationals from Bahrain. It seems there’s some pressure from the US on the Bahrain government to take extra care in dealing with this case.”
