Bahrain Sentences Nine Nationals To Life For Ties With Iran’s IRGC

A Bahraini court sentenced nine Bahraini nationals to life imprisonment and two others to three-year terms over their alleged ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with Bahrain’s state news agency saying the defendants were involved in “hostile and terrorist acts.”

“Bahrain has sentenced nine people to life in prison for carrying out what authorities describe as “hostile and terrorist acts” in cooperation with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)”

Al Jazeera

The court’s case, as described by Ilke Haber Ajansı, centered on allegations including “gathering information on sensitive sites” and facilitating financial transfers.

Al Jazeera

Bahrain’s interior ministry announced on May 9 the arrest of 41 individuals allegedly linked to the IRGC, and the verdict was delivered as part of an intensified crackdown described by Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera reported that the convictions were handed down after a wave of Iranian strikes on Bahrain following the United States and Israel’s war on Iran in late February, according to its account of the timeline.

Bahrain’s Terror Crimes Prosecution said the convictions came in two separate cases involving 11 defendants accused of espionage for the IRGC, while two others were sentenced to three years in prison, the National reported.

In the National’s account, prosecutors said the first case involved a fugitive allegedly linked to the IRGC who recruited a Bahrain-based defendant to surveil and film sensitive sites in the kingdom, and a second defendant accused of renting hotel rooms and apartments to monitor a site and pass information to the fugitive.

Devdiscourse

The Gulf News report said the head of Bahrain’s Terror Crimes Prosecution described the 11 defendants as convicted of communicating with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard with the intent to carry out hostile and terrorist acts against the kingdom and harm its national interests.

Gulf Daily News added that the court ordered the confiscation of seized items linked to the investigations, and said the cases were heard over several sessions in the presence of defence lawyers.

Al Jazeera said Bahrain began arresting individuals allegedly linked to Iran in March, shortly after the conflict began, and reported that authorities detained a further 41 people earlier this month.

“Nine people have been jailed for life in two separate cases after being found guilty of collaborating with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to carry out terrorist acts in Bahrain”

Gulf Daily News

It also said less than two weeks later, more than 60 people were stripped of their citizenship for allegedly supporting Iranian attacks on Bahrain and “colluding with foreign entities,” and it quoted the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy describing the move as “dangerous.”

İlke Haber Ajansı framed the Bahraini verdict as a politically motivated crackdown, saying pro-resistance voices condemned the life sentences as an attempt to silence dissent and punish those who challenge Bahrain’s alignment with anti-Iran forces.

In that same account, Iran was described as maintaining its right to self-defense and supporting “legitimate resistance movements,” while it said Iranian forces carried out proportionate responses against military targets in countries hosting aggressive foreign bases, including Bahrain.