Bahraini youth hold a placard during the funeral of Mahmud Al Jaziri on Al Nabih Saleh Island, south of Manama. Al Jaziri, 20, succumbed to wounds on February 21 after being shot during clashes between police and protesters marking the second anniversary of the February 14, 2011 uprising. 

DUBAI: A court in Bahrain yesterday condemned a protester accused of involvement in a bomb attack on police in a Shia village to 15 years in prison, the official BNA news 

agency reported.

It quoted a judiciary source as saying that the High Criminal Court in Manama handed down the sentence to the unidentified defendant on charges that included “attempted murder of members of the security forces.”

The suspect was also charged with “possessing and making explosives for terrorist purposes” and “detonating an explosive device to intimidate and 

spread panic.”

The agency said two police officers were wounded in the incident in the village of Sitra.

Explosives were placed inside a scale model of the former Pearl Square in the capital, the focal point for Shia-led anti-regime protests in February and March 2011, and detonated remotely when the officers approached.

BNA did not say when the attack 

took place.

The monument in Pearl Square was demolished after the month-long unrest, but the site on a major roundabout in the city remains a symbol of popular protest.

Home to the US Fifth Fleet and strategically situated across the Gulf from Iran, Sunni-ruled Bahrain has continued to witness sporadic Shia-led demonstrations which now take place in Shia villages surrounding the capital.

The International Federation for Human Rights says around 80 people have been killed in Bahrain since the violence first broke out on February 14, 2011.

AFP