Bahrain’s Court of Cassation accepted the verdict in form and turned down the appealed death penalty in substance against defendants Hussain Ali Moussa and Mohammed Ramadan Essa.
It also returned the case for reconsideration by the issuing court to be constituted from another jury to issue a new ruling, Advocate General and Head of Technical Office at the Public Prosecution Haroon al-Zayani said.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) submitted a memorandum to the Public Prosecution regarding its investigations in both complaints lodged by the two convicts, who were sentenced to death for killing a policeman and attempting to murder several others by detonating a bomb.
SIU suggested in its memorandum the possibility of reconsidering the sentence against the convicts on the basis of new reports that were issued in the course of its investigation and which were neither submitted to the two degrees of litigation courts nor to the Cassation Court.
The verdict was based on various pieces of evidence in addition to one derived from the defendants’ statements that included technical evidence proving that the suspects exchanged mobile text messages, indicating that they agreed and coordinated to commit the crime.
Based on SIU’s memorandum and the presentation by Acting Head of the SIU and to achieve the required justice, the Public Prosecution agreed with the memorandum and referred the matter to the Minister of Justice for initial reconsideration by the SIU and reconsideration of the said verdict according to his jurisdiction stipulated in the Court of Cassation Law.
The Ministry of Justice took the initiative to review the matter and requested the President of the Court of Cassation to reconsider the verdicts against both convicts in light of conclusions of the SIU and the discovery of new reports.
This decision was a result of its conclusions after the study and reliant upon the provision of the Cassation Court Law, which permits the Minister of Justice to request a reconsideration of final penalizing verdicts issued in specific cases.
The Court of Cassation, therefore, considered the request and issued its aforesaid ruling by accepting the request, reversing the verdict against both convicts and referring back the case to the issuing court to obtain a new ruling by another jury.
