Bahraini opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman will face trial later this month for "spying" for Qatar, the state prosecution said on Sunday.
Salman will be tried alongside two of his colleagues, Hassan Sultan and Ali Mehdi, from November 27 after they were charged earlier this month of espionage.
"The prosecution has referred the case in which Ali Salman, Hassan Sultan and Ali Mahdi are accused of spying for the state of Qatar to the High Criminal Court," the state prosecution said in a tweet.
١.أمرت النيابة الكلية بإحالة القضية المتهم فيها كل من علي سلمان علي أحمد وحسن علي جمعة سلطان وعلي مهدي علي الأسود بالتخابر مع دولة قطر إلى المحكمة الكبرى الجنائية، مسندة إليهم تهم التخابر مع دولة أجنبية لارتكاب أعمال عدائية ضد مملكة البحرين وبقصد الإضرار بمركزها السياسي،،
— النيابة العامة (@pp_bahrain) November 12, 2017
Salman has been behind bars since 2014 serving a nine-year sentence for allegedly inciting hatred.
On November 1 the state prosecution charged him with "spying on behalf of a foreign country … with the aim of carrying out subversive acts against Bahrain and harming its national interests".
Salman was also charged with "revealing defence secrets to a foreign country and disseminating information that would harm Bahrain's status and reputation".
The investigation into purported links between Salman and Qatar was first launched in August, after a quartet of Arab countries — Bahrain included — accused their neighbour of supporting terrorism and close relations with Iran.
State-run Bahrain Television aired a report which claimed that neighbouring Qatar was behind anti-government protests that shook the kingdom during the Arab Spring six years ago.
The report said Qatar's former premier Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem contacted Salman — then head of Bahrain's largest opposition group, Al Wefaq — in 2011 and asked him to urge protesters to flood the streets and ramp up pressure on the state.
