Manama, Feb 26 (IANS): Bahrain's High Criminal Court Thursday issued a verdict against a group of suspects, who were found guilty of killing three policemen in March last year.

Ahmed Al Hammadi, chief terror crimes prosecutor, said the court found the suspects guilty of the crime and sentenced three of them to death, adding that seven others were sentenced with life imprisonment, while eight had their citizenship revoked, according to Xinhua news agency.

The defendants were accused of planting remote detonating IEDs on the public highway and luring policemen to the scene after staging riots and carrying out acts of vandalism.

Once security forces arrived at the scene, the defendants detonated an improvised explosive device (IED), which resulted in the death of the policemen, and injured 13 others.

The verdict also accused two suspects of forming a terrorist offshoot within the Saraya Al-Ashtar terrorist group, said the official in a statement, adding that they succeeded in recruiting the rest of the defendants and others with experience in making and using explosives.

Al Hammadi also reaffirmed the defendants' right to appeal the verdict.