Bahrain military court condemns 4 protesters to death (VIDEO)

A military court in Bahrain sentenced four Shia Muslim activists to death for killing two police officers during protests against the Sunni Muslim-ruled government, Bahrain's official news agency reported.

Three other activists on trial in the same case were sentenced to life in prison.

Bahrain’s Shia majority, ruled by a Sunni elite, took to the streets last month in mass protests demanding reforms and equal rights. The king declared martial law and sought the help of Saudi troops to crack down on protests.

The police officers were reportedly killed during the protests when they were "deliberately hit by vans and run over in one of the most gruesome murders in Bahrain," according to the Bahrain News Agency. Footage captured on camera was reportedly broadcast on TV networks and featured on the social networks Facebook and YouTube.

The agency wrote that the murder charges against the seven men were investigated extensively and that the men had the right to appeal the verdict before the National Safety Court of Appeals.

It wrote that trial sessions were attended by representative from human rights organizations and relatives of the defendants, as well as journalists from the local media.

However human rights activists in Bahrain told the New York Times that suspects were barred from meeting with their families, and the news media were not allowed to cover the trial. They also argued that the trial was rendered unfair by a series of legal abuses, including the arrest of one of the defendants’ lawyers, Mohammed al-Tajer, one of Bahrain’s most prominent attorneys.

Slate, in a blog by Tom Scocca, meanwhile, juxtaposed the sentences against events in Bahrain during the course of March protests and their aftermath, writing that "dozens of protesters were killed, hundreds have been arrested, and hundreds of other members of the country's Shia majority were purged from their jobs. Wounded protesters were taken from the hospital into military custody. Even the monument at the center of the protest site was razed."

"Bahrain remains a valued American ally in the Middle East, hosting the navy's Fifth Fleet. The Bahraini military is armed with American-made weapons, as are the Saudi armed forces that arrived in the country to help the monarchy impose martial law," Scocca wrote

Mohamad Maskati, who heads a human rights group in the kingdom, told the NYT the verdicts could generate a new wave of protests in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

"These verdicts will have a huge negative impact on the Bahraini society," said. "We fear brutal violence in the days ahead. I am not optimistic at all — especially that there could be more similar verdicts in the near future."

Other activists refused to talk, citing the wave of arrests that have swept the country in the past two months.