One of seven men convicted of murdering policemen during a wave of anti-government protests last year had to be taken to hospital yesterday after he collapsed in court.

He fainted during an appeal hearing at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court and was taken away in an ambulance.

Lawyer Jalila Al Sayed told judges that the defendant suffered from sickle cell disease and also suffered food poisoning at Jaw Prison.

Judges adjourned the case until July 23 for defence witnesses to testify and ordered for the defendants to undergo a medical test at the request of lawyers.

Ali Abdulla Al Singace and Abdulaziz Abdulredha Hussain were earlier sentenced to death in connection with the deaths of policemen Kashef Ahmed Mandhoor and Mohammed Farooq Abdulsamad Al Balooshi.

Five others were also jailed for life for their part in the killing of policemen, while another two suspects are still on the run. The policemen were killed during an operation to evict protesters from the former GCC (Pearl) roundabout on March 16 last year.

Both were deliberately run over by protesters and footage of Mr Al Balooshi's death, broadcast on Bahrain TV, showed his lifeless body being repeatedly run over, kicked and pounded by rocks.

A former Interior Ministry employee earlier claimed the wrong men had been arrested.