On Wednesday, the Court of Cassation found the defendants guilty of forming an espionage cell and affiliation to Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). Iran denies supporting any bid to overthrow the Bahraini government.
The court condemned four of the convicts to life imprisonment and handed down15-year jail terms to five others, and sentenced another defendant to 10 years in prison.
The top court also revokedthe Bahraini citizenship of nine of the convicts, and ordered all to pay a total fine of 10,000 dinars ($26,522).
PressTV-Pro-regime Bahraini daily seeks to mar dissidents image
Bahrains al-Watan daily awkwardly seeks to link three slain anti-regime activists to the foreign-backed militancy in Syria.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.
They are demanding that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.
Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent.On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrainin its crackdown.
PressTV-Bahrain rights situation worsens amid world apathy
Activists have warned that human rights situation in Bahrain has deteriorated significantly in the past year.
Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regimes crackdown.
On March 5, 2017, Bahrainsparliamentapproved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.
Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3 last year.
