Bahrain upholds 9-year jail sentence for Shiite opposition chief

Sheikh Ali Salman was sentenced in July 2015 to four years in jail after being convicted of inciting hatred in Bahrain, but the appeals court in May more than doubled his jail term to nine years .

A supporter holds a portrait of Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the Shiite opposition movement Al-Wefaq, during a protest against his arrest, in the village of Zinj on the outskirts of the capital Manama.Show more

Bahrain’s appeals court on Monday upheld a nine-year jail sentence against Shiite opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman, a judicial source said.

The sentence against Salman, 51, for inciting hatred and calling for regime change by force, had been overturned by the court of cassation in October.

He was arrested in December 2014 in connection with speeches he had given.

The Shiite cleric was sentenced in July 2015 to four years in jail after being convicted of inciting hatred in the Gulf kingdom.

But the appeals court in May more than doubled his jail term to nine years after reversing an earlier acquittal on charges of calling for regime change by force.

The court of cassation overturned that sentence on October 17 and ordered a retrial before the appeals court.

It also rejected a request to release the cleric.

In July, a court ordered the dissolution of Salman's Al Wefaq movement for "harbouring terrorism", inciting violence and encouraging demonstrations which threatened to spark sectarian strife.

Salman holds a bachelors degree in mathematics from Saudi Arabia and in 1987 headed to Iran’s holy city of Qom to take up Islamic Studies at the Shiite school of clerics.

He was widely considered one of the leaders of an uprising in the 1990s and was arrested several times by the authorities.

After six years in exile, he returned to Bahrain in 2001 under a general amnesty.

Upon his return home, Salman set up Al Wefaq National Islamic Society with other Shiite opposition figures and was elected secretary general in 2006.

Al Wefaq boycotted elections in 2002 but ran in 2006, winning almost half the seats of the 40-member parliament.

It held onto its seats in the next polls in 2010, but Al Wefaq lawmakers withdrew in 2011 in protest at the “repression” of the Shiite-led protests.

The movement is appealing against its dissolution.

* Agence France-Presse