An appeals court in Bahrain on Thursday upheld the convictions of nine doctors charged with crimes related to the popular uprising last year in a case that drew international condemnation and was seen as a test of the government's commitment to political reform.
The nine doctors, who did not appear in court, were sentenced to between one month to five years in prison. The convictions of nine other doctors were overturned.
The doctors, all Shiite Muslims, were among thousands of people arrested during a government crackdown last year after protesters demanding greater political freedoms occupied a central roundabout in Manama, the Bahraini capital.
The country's largest public hospital, the Salmaniya Medical Complex, where the doctors worked, was quickly swept up in the conflict, as protests were held at the facility and the security services raided its wards. It became a symbol of the state's repression and its widening sectarian rift, between the Sunni ruling monarchy and Bahrain's Shiite majority, which has long complained of official discrimination.
NEW YORK TIMES
