Manama: A Bahraini court has jailed two men for five years after convicting them of possessing arms, plotting to attack foreign interests and linking up with al Qaeda, their lawyers said on Wednesday.
Lawyer Farid Ghazi said the verdict announced yesterday was purely "based on the possession weapons," and protested charges that the defendants "belong to a terrorist organisation," using the local term for al Qaeda.
"It is impossible that an organisation like al Qaeda could execute an attack using people that have no experience with arms, like our clients."
Ghazi said the prosecution had also accused the two Bahraini men of "plotting to attack instalments belonging to a foreign state," referring to the US Fifth Fleet base and the US embassy in Manama.
"This is impossible to prove because such attack would need more than two AK-47 rifles and pistols," he added.
The second lawyer, Abdullah Hashem, said the two defendants "did not meet any members of al Qaeda, and never belonged to this organisation."
He said the two were only "involved in intellectual and political debates and exchanged ideas on the Internet, as far as the accusation of belonging to al Qaeda is concerned."
The men were arrested in April.
PTI
