( CNN ) -- Bahrain on Thursday acquitted nine medical professionals who were accused of involvement in unrest in the country but upheld convictions of another 11 . All 20 were convicted last year of attempting to overthrow the government and were sentenced to lengthy prison terms . Bahrain sliced the sentences of many whose convictions were upheld Thursday . Of the 11 whose convictions stand , two are at large , five will be released on time served and the other four can appeal their sentences again , the Bahrain Information Affairs Authority announced . Human rights groups and some of the medical professionals , which include doctors , say they were treating people injured in last year 's protests against the government . The group Physicians for Human Rights denounced the sentences and called on the government to set aside the verdicts against all the medics . `` Eighteen of the accused medical professionals have alleged that Bahraini security forces tortured them while in detention , '' the group said in a statement . Maryam Alkhawaja , vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights , tweeted that the nine acquittals should not be seen as an achievement , because `` they should n't have been arrested and tortured to begin with . '' In a statement , the government insisted that `` no medic is being charged for treating protesters . The charges brought against the medics were primarily for their involvement in politicizing their profession , breaching medical ethics '' and , most seriously , calling for `` and involvement in the overthrow of the monarchy . '' Another Bahraini doctor , Nabeel Hameed , told CNN last month that during last year 's protests , `` We became automatic witnesses . '' He was on call -- one of only three neurosurgeons at Salmaniya Hospital , on February 18 , 2011 -- when an injured protester was brought in . The patient had been shot in the head . `` For treating him and then expressing my concerns about the way he was injured , I got labeled as a traitor , '' Hameed told CNN 's Christiane Amanpour . Two months later , he was arrested , he said . `` They took me into an interrogation center for about four days of torture . I was not alone . I was with other doctors . They made us stand for days together ... without sleep , without toilet privileges , without anything . And in between that , you get abused , you get spat at , you got insulted ... and everybody who passes by you just beats you on the head or the back . '' `` But the worst thing is a room , an electronically locked room ... and when the doors open , all hell breaks loose . Because you start hearing these shouts of torture . Of people inside . ... Your turn is next . And my turn was next . ... Somebody even took a gun to my head and threatened me with death , '' Hameed said . He was later released , but as a changed man , he said . Bahraini officials have denied ordering torture . CNN 's Lucky Gold contributed to this report .
Eleven medical professionals were arrested and sentenced last year . Bahrain acquitted nine of them Thursday . Of the remaining 11 , nine are at large , the government says . Two were sentenced to time served ; the other two can appeal , Bahrain says .