MANAMA, 2 November 2004 — Bahrain’s High Civil Appeals Court yesterday freed four people allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda and held on suspicion of plotting attacks in the Gulf kingdom.
The four are among a group of six Islamists arrested in July for allegedly planning bomb attacks against government, economic and tourist sites in Bahrain. The court adjourned their trial for a month.
Last July, when five of the suspects were initially released but barred from leaving the country, Washington warned its nationals, including 5,000 military personnel based in the kingdom, of a specific threat of an attack in Bahrain.
The Pentagon ordered dependants and non-essential personnel to leave. Judge Abdul Rahman Al-Sayed decided to release the four and adjourned the case until Dec. 6 when the court would hear the prosecution’s response to a defense charge that the court is unconstitutional.
The judge ordered that Bassam Al-Ali, Yasser Abdullah Kamal, Mohieddeen Mahmood Khan, and Bassam Bokhowa be released, while Bokhowa’s case was referred to the constitutional court after his lawyer Rabab Al Arrayed argued that the arrest based on Article 157 of the Penal Code was unconstitutional.
Bassam Al-Ali, Yasser Abdullah Kamal, Mohieddeen Mahmood Khan and Bassam Abdullah Bukhowa prostrated themselves, thanking God, as their relatives chanted Allah-o-Akbar (God is great). Two other suspects, Omar Kamal and Mohammed Saleh Ali Mohammed, were released on Sept. 11. “(The decision) implies that the defendants are innocent” said Abdullah Hashem, the lawyer defending Ali and Kamal told AFP.
“The Bahraini judicial system has proven to be impartial and that it does not respond to pressure... There is political pressure from international parties in this case”, he added. Two of the defendants, Khan and Ali, also commended “the independence of Bahraini judiciary”.
“There is no case at all, and we are innocent of all accusations against us...I am very happy with the decision,” Khan told AFP.
Ali expressed his satisfaction with the decision “despite the long period we spent under arrest”.
“It is vital for me to live in a state that is independent and has an impartial judiciary that does not succumb to pressure”, he added. Article 157 of Bahrain’s penal code provid
s for jail sentences against anyone guilty of being part of an agreement to commit a crime, while article 20 of the constitution holds that only those who have actually committed a criminal act can be punished.
