Bahrian: Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim’s health worsening

A human rights group says the health condition of Bahrain’s top religious scholar Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, who has been under a virtual house arrest since last year, has dramatically been deteriorated in recent days, warning that he is in urgent need of medical treatment.

According to a statement by the UK-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) on Monday, physicians who had visited the spiritual leader at his home in the northwestern village of Diraz a day earlier had diagnosed him to be suffering from a “groin hernia requiring an emergency operation.” Sheikh Qassim is in his late early 80s.

“Such an operation carries a high mortality risk at Sheikh Isa Qassim´s age. He also suffers high blood pressure, diabetes and a form of heart disease,” further said BIRD in its statement. Bahraini activists also reported that Sheikh Qassim was suffering constant pain and excreting blood.

Reports said that on Sunday Bahraini security forces completely surrounded Sheikh Qassim’s house.

On June 14, Bahrain’s so-called administrative court ordered the dissolution of the country’s al-Wefaq National Islamic Society and the seizure of its funds after the Bahraini Justice Ministry had suspended the opposition group’s activities. Al-Wefaq is the country’s main Shia opposition group and has been spiritually led by Sheikh Qassim.

A week later, the top cleric faced expulsion from Bahrain after authorities revoked his citizenship, accusing him of “illegal fund collections, money laundering and helping terrorism” against Sheikh Qassim. They further accused him of using his position to “serve foreign interests” and promote “sectarianism and violence.” He has strongly rejected all the allegations. 

Bahraini authorities later dissolved the Islamic Enlightenment Institution (Tawiya), founded by Sheikh Qassim, in addition to the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.

Ever since, the public has been staging day-to-day sit-ins in front of his house in Diraz, and the government has placed the village under a siege, killing a number of people after attacking the demonstrations in several occasions.

A trial session for Sheikh Qassim postponed several times amid fears of a surge in popular outrage.

SS