Bahrain investigates suspicious teen death

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MANAMA, Bahrain, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A legal affairs official in Bahrain called for an immediate investigation into the death of a teenage boy following conflicting reports on his demise.

Legal affairs officials in the Bahraini Interior Ministry said Friday they were ordering an investigation into the death of 16-year-old Ahmed Jaber. The official Bahrain news agency said there was one report that said Jaber died from a gunshot wound by police while another from the Bahrain International Hospital attributed his death to heart failure.

CNN International reported that opposition party al-Wefaq and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights claim Jaber was killed during demonstrations in Manama.

Protests are ongoing despite the crackdown against an uprising from the Shiite community against the ruling Sunni minority.

The kingdom this week transferred the cases of a group of medical workers accused of plotting to overthrow the government to the civilian courts.

A group of Bahraini doctors and nurses were given prison sentences ranging from 5-15 years by a military court for spreading "stories and lies" and for trying to topple the regime during the uprising early this year.

The monarchy said it was committed to its international human rights obligations, though London said before the transfer that the sentences appeared "disproportionate to the charges brought."