A Bahraini court on Sunday sentenced four people to life imprisonment and six others to 15 years in jail on charges of setting up a terror cell called “Imam Army”. The court acquitted 14 others of the charges. Two of the four sentenced to life were tried in absentia.In February, Chief of Public Security Major General Tariq Al Hassan said that security intelligence information obtained by the National Security Agency indicated that a group was attempting to form a terrorist cell targeting sensitive civil and military locations as well as public figures.
A joint team was formed by the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency to probe the network, including its members, funding and training activities. Investigations revealed the formation of a network to set up a terrorist cell as a nucleus for what was called “Imam Army” to carry out acts of terror.
The network was made up of Bahraini elements inside Bahrain and abroad, in addition to members from other nationalities. Al Hassan said that four of the accused were still at large and that the competent security agencies were exerting the necessary efforts to apprehend them.
According to the confessions of the accused, the recruiting was done by two Bahrainis, Mirza Mohammed and Aqeel Jaffar, who resided in Iran. The probe revealed that the man behind them was an Iranian national, Abu Nasser, from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Major General Tariq Al Hassan revealed that the cell trained on the use of weapons, high explosives, methods to gather information, writing about and photographing locations, as well as recruitment of members.
