Bahrain detains 4 more Shia clerics
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A member of the Bahraini security forces is seen at a checkpoint as Shia Muslims walk toward a mosque for Friday prayers in the village of Diraz, west of the capital, Manama, July 3, 2015. (Photo by AFP)
Officials in Bahrain have detained four more Shia clerics, as the regime continues to suppress political dissent throughout the country.
The Bahraini daily Manama Post reported on Wednesday that Sheikh Imad al-Sho’leh, Sheikh Aziz al-Khazran, Sheikh Monir Ma’tooq, and Seyyed Mohammad al-Ghoraifi had been arrested a day earlier pending interrogation.
Meanwhile, a court in Bahrain has also handed down 15-day prison terms to four other Shia clerics, identified as Sheikh Mohammad Jivad al-Shahabi, Sheikh Fazel al-Zaki, Sheikh Ali al-Muhali, and Mula Habib al-Derazi.
The latter four clerics have been charged with organizing protests in the Western Diraz Village.
Late last month, regime forces arrested Seyyed Majid al-Mashaal, a senior Shia cleric and the Secretary of the country’s Muslim Scholars Council.
In January, a Bahraini court decided to dissolve the council, which included a number of prominent Bahraini Shia scholars, and ordered the liquidation of its assets.
The council had been founded in 2004 under the leadership of prominent Shia religious scholar Sheikh Issa Qassim, who has himself been stripped of his citizenship and is being tried at a court over charges of promoting anti-regime dissent.
People in Bahrain have been staging protests since February 2011 to demand that the ruling Ale Khalifah regime relinquish power.
The regime has been attempting to counter the protests by launching a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters and their leaders.
ME
