News / Persian Gulf

Bahrain jails seven dissidents, strips them of citizenship

Monday, 15 October 2018 1:33 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 15 October 2018 7:15 PM ]

This file picture shows the entrance to the building of Bahrain’s Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs in the capital Manama.

Bahraini judicial authorities have sentenced seven political dissidents to jail and revoked their citizenship as the ruling Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its heavy-handed clampdown on pro-democracy campaigners in the Persian Gulf kingdom.

The Arabic-language Lualua television network reported that the officials found the defendants guilty of “joining a terrorist group” and involvement in the explosion of a crude oil pipeline in the northern village of Buri, located about 13 kilometers southwest of the capital Manama, last November.

Five of them were sentenced to life in prison over the blast, stripped of their citizenship, and ordered to pay 200,000 Bahraini dinars ($530,480) in fine.

Two other defendants were handed down ten-year and five-year jail terms.

Lawyer Fatima al-Hawaj said the convicts have strongly dismissed the trumped-up charges leveled against them.

Of the seven defendants, three were tried in absentia. The other four were identified as 23-year-old Fadhel Ali, Anwar al-Mushaima, 24, Mohammed Mahrous, 27, and 23-year-old Adel Saleh.

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Bahrain’s main opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, says it will boycott parliamentary elections due to take place in late November.

Thousands of anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown.

On March 5, 2017, Bahrain’s parliament approved the trial of civilians at military tribunals in a measure blasted by human rights campaigners as being tantamount to imposition of an undeclared martial law countrywide.

Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah ratified the constitutional amendment on April 3 last year.

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