An appeals court in Bahrain has acquitted nine medics, and cut down the jail terms of nine others, after they were charged last year for their role in pro-democracy protests last year.

Of the nine who received shortened sentences, five of them have received sentences shorter than one year and will not go to jail since they’ve already served their sentences, according to AFP.

While all the medics have been on bail since last Septmeber, arrests will be reissued for the four who will still serve terms after the appeal. Among those four are orthopaedic surgeon Ali Alekri, whose initial jail term went down from 15 years to five years, and Ibrahim al-Damstani, secretary-general of the Bahraini Nursing Society, who will serve three years. The remaining two doctors are named by AFP as Ghassan Daif and Saeed al-Samaheji, who each got a sentence of one year.

Two other doctors did not file an appeal in the first place.

The 20 doctors and nurses had been handed sentences ranging from five to 15 years in September 2011 after indicting them of plotting to overthrow the government in Bahrain. They all worked at the Salmaniya Medical Compound (SMC), a large hospital in the capital Manama, during mostly peaceful protests that broke out in February and March 2011.

The case has generated wide international criticism from human rights groups and the international researchers’ community, with the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies sending an appeal letter to the Bahraini king asking to clear the medics and allow them back to work.