Bahrain's appeals court on Sunday cut the jail terms of two policemen convicted of torturing to death a Shia detainee after a 2011 crackdown on protests, a judicial source said.

The court reduced the terms of the men from seven years to three after a lower court had convicted them in December over Abdul Karim Fakhrawi's death in custody in April 2011.

Fakhrawi was a publisher and had co-founded Al-Wasat daily, which the authorities had briefly shuttered following the crackdown on month-long Shia-led protests in mid-March that year.

A number of policemen are facing trials over claims of killing protesters or torturing detainees after a wave of arrests that targeted members of the Shia majority.

On Monday, a court in the Sunni-ruled kingdom decreased the jail term of a policeman convicted of shooting dead a protester in February 2011 from seven years to three.

The policeman had been convicted of shooting dead protester Ali Musheime with birdshot, but the court said Monday that the killing was not premeditated murder.

The authorities say they are implementing the recommendations of an independent commission of inquiry that confirmed allegations the security forces had used excessive force during the uprising.

Home to the US Fifth Fleet and strategically situated across the Gulf from Iran, Bahrain still sees sporadic Shia-led demonstrations, mostly outside the capital Manama.

At least 89 people have been killed since the protests began two and a half years ago, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.