Bahrain prosecutors said yesterday scores of people will stand trial next month on charges of setting up a “terrorist organisation”, espionage and armed attacks on police officers.
The case pertains to Bahrain’s allegation last year that Iranian Revolutionary Guards helped fugitives from the Gulf kingdom join forces to set up a Shia militant group called the Zulfiqar Brigades to destabilise the state.
Bahrain has witnessed a series of bomb attacks since 2011 that the government says has killed nearly 20 police officers, as well as continued, sporadic Shia unrest.
In a statement posted on social media, the public prosecutor’s office said it had completed an investigation into the Zulfiqar Brigades and transferred the case to court.
Bahrain accuses government-sanctioned groups in Iran of supporting militants trying to topple its kingdom, a charge the Islamic Republic denies.
The prosecutor’s statement said a total of 138 suspects had been referred to courts on various charges, including contacts with a “foreign power” -- an allusion to Iran, possession of weapons and attacks on security forces.
The group includes 86 suspects currently in custody in the Gulf kingdom and 52 on the run between Iraq and Iran, chief prosecutor Hamad Shaheen said in a statement on the official BNA news agency.
They are charged with forming and overseeing the so-called “Zulfiqar Brigades”, joining the group, causing bombings, possessing explosives and undergoing weapons and explosives training, he said.
They are also accused of “spying for a foreign country”.
A criminal court is due to start hearing the case on Aug. 23, the statement said.
Tensions have risen in Bahrain following a series of government security moves including the dissolution of the main opposition Al-Wefaq group and the arrest of rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab over tweets he allegedly made about the Gulf Arab kingdom’s prison system and its involvement in the war in Yemen.
Bahrain has also since revoked the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the country’s Shias, Ayatollah Isa Qassim, and charged him with collecting funds without a permit and money laundering. Isa Qassim denies the charges.
His trial is due to start today.