Manama, Bahrain - The trial of 35 men charged with allegedly taking part in a foiled bombing terror plot last December in Bahrain opened in Manama on Monday - but was immediately postponed for one month.

The Criminal High Court was placed under heavy police guard for the opening hearing, amid skirmishes between police and relatives of the suspects after most of the families were denied access to the court.

The 35 suspects are accused under anti-terrorism legislation of conspiring to overthrow the Bahraini government and taking part in an alleged plot to detonate homemade explosives at a public celebration.

Some of those accused have since used television interviews to claim that the confessions were obtained under torture, and the false promise that they would be pardoned.

The general secretary of the opposition Haq (Right) Movement, Hassan Mesheima, and Shiite cleric Mohammed al-Moqdad - who are two out of three prominent opposition figures charged - described the trial as being politically motivated.

"The charges are malicious and this trial is meant to settle political accounts," Mesheima told the court, adding that he was targeted because of his political activity.

Bahrain's Minister of the Interior, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al Khalifa, shortly after the alleged plot was revealed, accused Bahraini opposition leaders based in London of masterminding and training the terror cell.

He also claimed that some of those detained, all of whom are Shiites, had received military training in Syria during July and August of 2008. Although the majority of Bahrain's population is Shiite, the royal family and elite are Sunni Muslims. (dpa)