Ayatollah Sheikh Qassim leaves ICU after ‘successful’ operation in London

Bahrain’s religious scholar, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, has come out of the intensive care unit (ICU) after undergoing a “successful” operation at a London hospital, his entourage says.

According to reports, on Thursday, Sheikh Qassim’s aide said that the religious scholar, would “need medical supervision in the coming period,” after he underwent surgery on Tuesday.

His medical team had issued a statement on Monday, confirming his transfer abroad from the Bahraini capital Manama in order to avoid further complications in his deteriorating health.  

Bahriani regime authorities stripped the religious scholar of his citizenship on June 20, 2016. They later dissolved the Islamic Enlightenment Institution founded by him as well as the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.

Sheikh Qassim, also the spiritual leader of Bahrain’s main Shia Muslim opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has been an outspoken critic of the Manama regime’s policies.

His home village of Diraz has been under what human rights activists have called a continuous police blockade since the Interior Ministry leveled accusations against the prominent cleric and revoked his citizenship.

Sheikh Qassim is one of hundreds of people stripped of Bahraini citizenship since 2012.

SS