International rights group called the sentence a “travesty of justice.”

A statement from the public prosecutor said the court had sentenced Sheikh Ali Salman, secretary general of the opposition al-Wefaq group; and Sheikh Hassan Sultan and Ali Alaswad, members of the same group, to life in prison for transferring confidential information to and receiving financial support from Qatar. Earlier this year, the Bahraini High Court of First Tier had acquitted Sheikh Ali Salman of all charges against him, but on Saturday, the country’s Court of Appeal overturned that order and ruled that the opposition leader had been planning a coup with Qatari officials. Human rights group Amnesty described Sheikh Ali Salman’s prison sentence as a “travesty of justice” and called the decision a continuation of Bahrain’s “crackdown on dissent”. “This verdict… demonstrates the Bahraini authorities’ relentless and unlawful efforts to silence any form of dissent,” Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director Heba Morayef told BBC. Sheikh Ali Salman is a prisoner of conscience who is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression,” Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director Heba Morayef said. “Sheikh Ali Salman is a prisoner of conscience who is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.”

Ali Salman, who led the now outlawed Al-Wefaq movement, was accused of plotting with Qatar to stoke anti-government unrest in 2011, along with fellow opposition leaders Hassan Sultan and Ali al-Aswad. Al-Wefaq, which was the tiny Gulf nation's largest Shiite opposition bloc, was ordered dissolved in 2016 as part of a crackdown on dissent in the kingdom, which has a Shiite majority but is ruled by a Sunni monarchy.
Bahrain's Court of Appeal rules that the former leader of the now outlawed Al-Wefaq party, Sheikh Ali Salman, will receive a life sentence over his conviction for 2011 spying for Qatar.