TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran has condemned Bahrain over the jailing for life of three senior opposition leaders, saying Manama is seeking to "intensify its suppression” of dissent.
Bahraini Sheikh Ali Salman and two of his aides were sentenced on Sunday for "acts of hostility” against Bahrain and spying for rival Persian Gulf state Qatar.
The ruling against Salman, who headed the now-banned Al-Wefaq movement, has been called a travesty by rights groups.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said the verdict "leaves no doubt for the international community that the government of Bahrain… intends to intensify its suppression.”
He called on Bahraini officials to "put aside their police state methods and use real and serious dialogue with the opposition and critics,” in a statement published late Sunday.
Qasemi also said Manama should refrain from issuing "inhumane verdicts against its people”.
Salman and the two aides had been acquitted by the high criminal court in June, a verdict the public prosecution appealed.
A close ally of the U.S., the UK and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is due to hold elections on November 24 and the sentences will again raise questions about the west’s willingness to put security concerns ahead of human rights in the Persian Gulf.
In Bahrain the U.S. and UK each have military bases, the latter funding, for years, aspects of the country’s human rights, prisons and police work.
The Bahrain public prosecutor statement said the court sentenced Salman and Sheikh Hassan Sultan, and Ali Alaswad, members of the Al-Wefaq movement, to life in jail for spying for Qatar.