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A Bahraini court has sentenced eight people to 15-year jail terms for forming a "terror" group, a statement to Al Arabiya News Channel read.

The criminal court also stripped the defendants of their citizenship after convicting them of "establishing and raising donations to fund a terror organization named Bahraini Hezbollah", the source said, citing the verdict.

The group's name appears to link it to Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed Shiite movement, though the verdict did not specify any connection.

The eight defendants were accused of forming the group in 2014, possessing weapons and attempting to kill policemen in Nuwaidrat, a village east of Manama.

They staged an unauthorized demonstration in Nuwaidrat in June 2014 and blocked the streets while one of the defendants opened fire at a police patrol, the judicial source said. Two other defendants were jailed three years each for participating in the demonstration.

Meanwhile, the interior ministry told Al Arabiya English that police have arrested a man described as the main suspect in the shooting of a policeman in Sitra last month.

“The General Directorate of Investigation and Forensic Science has arrested the main suspect in the shooting of a policeman in Sitra on May 23. Another eight individuals previously convicted in unrelated terror cases were also arrested, including a fugitive who has been sentenced to life in prison and his citizenship has been revoked,” a spokesperson said.

(With AFP)