A 21-year-old Bahraini has been sentenced to death for killing a policeman in Sitra area of the kingdom during the unrest.

Ali Yousif Abdulwahab Al Taweel was convicted of the crime at the National Safety Court on Thursday.

His accomplice, Ali Atteyah Mahdi Shamlool, 23, was jailed for life after repeatedly instructing the driver to run over Ahmed Rashid Ahmed Al Muraisi during the unrest.

There were emotional scenes in the aftermath of the verdict as judges allowed Mr Al Taweel's tearful parents to embrace their son within the courtroom.

Lawyers of both men plan to appeal at the High Criminal Appeal Court.

The Military Prosecution earlier told the court the men were guilty without a shadow of doubt of premeditated murder.

Prosecutors said several policemen had identified the men at the scene and presented forensic evidence proving they committed the crime.

However, witnesses previously claimed the wrong men were on trial for murder.

They told the court people in Sitra believed the policeman was murdered by another anti-government protester, who had since died.

Footage of the policeman being mowed down by anti-government protesters was earlier broadcast on Bahrain TV.

Al Taweel's lawyer previously claimed there was no solid evidence tying his defendant to the murder or his accomplice.

He said his client was illiterate and therefore did not know he had signed a confession.

Two other men were given the death penalty for the murder of policemen Kashef Ahmed Mandhoor and Mohammed Farooq Abdulsamad Al Balooshi during the unrest.

Five other accomplices were jailed for life for their part in the crime after they had their sentences reduced on appeal.

The policemen were killed during an operation to evict protesters from the GCC (Pearl) Roundabout on March 16.

Both were deliberately run over by protesters and footage of Al Balooshi's death, broadcast on Bahrain TV, showed his lifeless body being repeatedly run over, kicked and pounded by rocks.

Ali Abdullah Hassan Al Singees and Abdulaziz Abdulredha Ibrahim Hussain were given the death penalty in April.

Qassim Hassan Mattar Ahmad, Saeed Abduljalil Saeed, Isa Abdulla Kadhem Ali, Sayyed Sadiq Ali Mahdi and Hussain Ja'afar Abdulkareem were jailed for life. The men's case is now being reviewed by the Cassation Court.-TradeArabia News Service