Bahrain bars rights activist from leaving country

Bahraini authorities have prevented a human rights activist from traveling abroad in an attempt to keep the international community in the dark about its human rights record.

Enas Oun, who is the Head of the Monitoring and Documentation Department at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), was stopped at the Bahrain International Airport on Monday morning as she was on her way to a human rights workshop in Tunisia, Arabic-language Lualua television network reported.

Authorities told her that she could not travel abroad based on an order issued by the so-called Criminal Investigation Department the previous day.

Bahrain has been heavily cracking down on political dissent for almost five and a half years.

On August 18, Bahraini officials handed down a three-year prison sentence to human rights activist Ghada Jamshir.

An ardent campaigner for the reform of judicial system in Bahrain and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Jamshir was charged with engaging in political activities against the Manama regime, and publishing posts critical of the Ale Khalifah dynasty on social media.

Last month, Bahraini officials prevented more than 16 human rights activists from attending the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council, which took place in the Swiss city of Geneva from June 13 to July 8.

Separately, a Bahraini court sentenced Shia Muslim eulogist Abdullah Sabah on charges of “holding unlawful gatherings” in the northwestern village of village of Diraz, situated about 12 kilometers (seven miles) west of the capital, Manama.

Bahraini authorities have either arrested or summoned more than a dozen Shia clerics over the past few weeks.

The Manama regime has recently banned congregational Friday prayers in the country as well.

Bahraini Shia clerics have condemned the ban as a part of “systematic suppression of Bahraini Shia Muslims.”

 ME