Amnesty urges Bahrain to stop repression of opponents

Amnesty International has called on the Bahraini regime to suspend its heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful critics and opposition figures as Manama keeps up its policy of repression.

“The Bahraini authorities should halt immediately their heightened crackdown on peaceful critics and opponents,” said the UK-based rights group said in a statement published on Thursday.

Over the past two months, scores of protesters and at least 60 Shia religious scholars have been summoned and arrested in connection with sit-ins held in the village of Diraz, home to prominent religious scholar. Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim.

Sheikh Qassim is the spiritual leader of al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Bahrain’s main opposition group which has recently been dissolved by the Manama regime.

He had his citizenship revoked back in June, with Bahrain’s Interior Ministry accusing the clergyman of seeking the “creation of a sectarian environment.” He has rejected the accusation.

Elsewhere in its statement, Amnesty said that four of the detained clerics were sentenced to between one and two years imprisonment while nine others remain in detention and are facing trial.

SS