Ninety per cent of public school teachers were absent during a three-day period at the height of last year's unrest, it has been claimed.

The Supreme Criminal Appeals Court heard they were demonstrating outside school grounds between February 21-23 and again on March 14.

The claims came from a key defence witness in the appeal of Bahrain Teacher's Society (BTS) head Mahdi Abu Dheeb and member Jalila Al Salman.

"Ninety per cent of public school teachers did not attend school and were protesting outside the school premises in all 207 government schools," said the BTS member, who was earlier acquitted of illegal gathering.

"There were no children at school at the time of the protests which didn't affect the flow of education."

Mr Abu Dheeb and Ms Al Salman were earlier convicted by the National Safety Court of inciting people to commit crimes, calling for the overthrow of the government, holding leaflets containing political propaganda and disseminating fabricated information during the unrest.

They also allegedly walked out on their jobs, encouraged others to do the same and took part in illegal gatherings.

Mr Abu Dheeb was jailed for 10 years and Ms Al Salman for three years.

However, she was later released from custody on health reasons.