TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari condemned on Tuesday extension of jail sentence for Bahraini opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman.

On Monday, a Bahraini appeals court extended jail sentence of Sheikh Ali Salman, the secretary general of al-Wefaq party, from four to nine years on claimed charges of inciting violence.

“Such actions against moderate political leaders do not solve the problems,” Jaberi Ansari noted.

These acts will further complicate the problems and benefit the extremists, he added.

Sheikh Salman was sentenced on June 16, 2015 to four years in prison.

His appeal had been pending for eight months but the Supreme Court of Appeal increased Salman’s prison sentence to nine years from the original four.

Al-Wefaq is a political society and the largest party in the country, both in terms of its membership and its results at the polls. 18 MPs of al-Wefaq walked out in February 2011 to protest violence against demonstrators who protest discrimination.

Bahrain has experienced sporadic turmoil since a Shia-led uprising in 2011 that demanded democratic reforms and a bigger role in government, Aljazeera reported.

NA/PA