The Public Prosecution in Bahrain presented on Tuesday new damning evidence against Bahraini suspects held for their involvement in the Qatar spy case.
A hearing at the High Criminal Court meanwhile said that it will announce a verdict in the case on June 21.
The prosecution accuses each of Ali Salman, Hassan Ali Jomaa Sultan and Ali Mahdi al-Aswad with spying for Doha.
The High Criminal Court had continued its proceedings on Tuesday, looking into charges that the defendants had “collaborated with a foreign country to commit hostile acts against Bahrain.” They sought to “undermine its political and economic status and its national interests for the purpose of toppling the ruling regime.”
The charges also include “passing defense secrets to and accepting money from a foreign country in exchange for providing it with military secrets and information about the internal situation in Bahrain and spreading rumors abroad to weaken the financial confidence in the Kingdom and undermine its standing,” reported the Bahrain news agency (BNA).
The general prosecutor said that the court held an open session on Tuesday according to the law. The first defendant and his lawyer were present, while the second and third suspects were absent.
The trial proceedings kicked off in November after official authorities in Bahrain announced on August 16 that former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani had contacted one of the suspects, Ali Salman, in wake of the developments witnessed in Bahrain between February 14 and March 16, 2011.
Bahraini security agencies revealed “Qatar’s schemes to fund terrorist acts” in the Kingdom through wiring funds from a Qatari figure to a member of the al-Wefaq party, which was headed by Salman. The party was later dissolved.
The security forces charged that the funds were aimed at financing the terrorist bombing in the Sitra region in July 2015 that left two security personnel dead and wounded eight others.
Salman is currently serving a prison sentence in another case.
He was accused of promoting a political regime change through threats, the use of force and illegal means. He was also convicted of sectarian incitement in order to destabilize civil peace.
He was sentenced to four years in prison.
The other defendant, Hassan Jomaa Sultan, is a hardline cleric, who earned his religious education in Iran. He is one of the leading figures of the Islamic Dawa and the dissolved Wefaq party.
The third defendant, Sultan, has close ties with Qatari sponsors of terrorism and Lebanon’s “Hezbollah” party. A voice recording between him and former aide to the emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Atieh, had previously surfaced in which they are heard to be planning to stoke chaos in Bahrain.
