Western-backed Bahraini regime jails 10 anti-regime protesters

A Bahraini court has slapped jail terms on 10 anti-regime protesters as part of Manama’s crackdown on dissent.

On Wednesday, the court sentenced nine of the protesters to between three-months and one-year in prison for participating in demonstrations against the dictator Al-Khalifah regime across the Persian Gulf kingdom.

Another protester was also given a six-month jail term for allegedly attacking a police station.

According to Bahrain’s main opposition party, al-Wefaq, the Manama regime’s harsh clampdown on pro-democracy activists has intensified over the past months.

Earlier this month, Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, also said that “The [Bahraini] authorities simply slap the label ‘terrorist’ on defendants and then subject them to all manner of violations to end up with a ‘confession’.”

Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, calling for political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.

Scores have been killed, many of them under torture, while in custody, and thousands more detained since the popular uprising started in the kingdom.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Protesters say they will continue to hold anti-regime demonstrations until their demand for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to rights violations are met.