Clashes between Bahraini police and Shia youths are continuing on a daily basis despite a ruling acquitting 19 youth activists of murder.

“There are clashes almost every night in the villages,” Nader Al-Salatna, Vice President of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, told The Media Line. “Youths start marching, asking for jobs with a living wage, or calling for detained activists to be freed, the government tries to stop it and this leads to clashes.”

The news comes after 19 young men accused of murdering a Pakistani policeman in the Shia village of Karzakan last year were acquitted of the crime by a Bahraini court less than two weeks ago.

The government accused the men of murdering the 24-year-old police officer, Majid Asghar Baksh, by throwing Molotov cocktails at unmarked police vehicles.

The 15-lawyer defense team argued the government’s case was based on confessions obtained using torture and a medical examiner determined the officer to have died as the result of a fall, not from a Molotov cocktail.

“Most of the youth here support more democratic rights,” said Al-Salatna. “After one and a half years of being tortured in jail they were freed without any charges.”

The court found the government to lack sufficient evidence and released all the detainees, but the trial led to a national political drama and to clashes between Bahraini police and primarily Shia youths throughout the country.