A Bahraini court yesterday sentenced a protester to death for killing a policeman after a crackdown on pro-reform rallies and jailed 20 Shiites medics charged with trying to overthrow the regime.

Ali Yusof al-Taweel was sentenced to death and another protester, Ali Mahdi, to life in prison for running over policeman Ahmed al-Mreyssi in a Shiite area of Manama during unrest after the demonstrations were crushed in mid-March, military general prosecutor Yusof Flaifel said.

Thirteen medics were sentenced to 15 years in jail for their roles in protests, two others to 10 years and five to five years, including several women, he added, as cited by the BNA state news agency.

London-based advocacy group Amnesty International termed the verdicts against the medics a “travesty of justice”.

The national safety court was set up under a three-month quasi-emergency law declared by King Hamad ahead of the crackdown on the protests led by the Shiite majority of the Sunni-ruled Gulf nation.

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