Bahrain cuts jail of athletes sentenced over uprising

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Bahrain cuts jail of athletes sentenced over uprising

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Jail sentence of three Bahraini athletes was reduced to one year from fifteen years.

30 September,2012 05:46 pm

A Bahraini court on Sunday reduced jail sentences for three Shiite athletes who took part in an Arab Spring-inspired uprising last year to one year from 15 years, their lawyers said.The handball players were part of a group of 32 people accused of setting fire to a farm belonging to a member of Bahrains royal family in a Shiite village near Manama during the protests in February 2011.The athletes, Mohammed Mirza, his brother Ali Mirza and Mohammed Jawad, had been sentenced to 15 years in prison by the quasi military court set up in the aftermath of the brutal government crackdown on the Shiite-led protests.They are expected to be released shortly, their lawyers said.Bahrain has continued to witness sporadic Shiite-led demonstrations, mostly outside the capital, since it crushed the protest movement in March 2011.London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International says about 60 people have been killed in protest-related unrest since the demonstrations first erupted.