A court has rejected the objection of a man who was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of smuggling more than 350kg of hashish via sea.
The High Criminal Court also fined the accused BD5,000 in the original ruling in August.
He was not present in court when the verdict was delivered, which is why he was allowed to contest it.
Three other men also received 25-year prison sentences each in the case, while two more men were sentenced to 10 years in prison each.
Prosecutors accused the six Bahraini men of possessing and selling hashish, while a 19-year-old Moroccan girl stood trial alongside them on charges of using drugs.
According to the court, the defendants were in correspondence with the leader of a narcotics-smuggling network based in Iran who supplied them with large quantities of hashish.
He reportedly sent them co-ordinates in the middle of Bahrain’s territorial waters from where they could pick up the cache from Iranian individuals, then distribute and re-sell the drugs upon their return to the kingdom.
Of the four men who received 25-year prison sentences, two lived in Hidd and did the majority of the legwork, the court heard.
One of them owned a boat and could sail to the pick-up spots in the middle of the sea.
Another was a business owner who used his popular grills restaurant as cover for his illicit activities.
A retiree from Hidd was also charged with possessing synthetic cannabinoids (CBD) and methamphetamine for personal use, while another defendant was acquitted of using diazepam (Valium) and pregabalin (Lyrica).
The North African teenager received a one-year prison sentence along with a BD2,000 fine for using hashish, meth and alprazolam (Xanax), and has already been deported to her home country.
In the initial trial, only two of the seven defendants were present in court to deny accusations and receive their judgement, and the rest did not attend their own hearings.
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