RNA – Ayatollah Abbas Ka’bi, the representative of the people of Khuzestan province in the Assembly of Experts, issued a statement following a news announcement that Ayatollah Shaykh Isa Qasim, the spiritual leader of the Bahrain’s persecuted Shi’ah majority, has been deteriorating.
The United Kingdom-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) says the health condition of Ayatollah Isa Qasim, who has been under a virtual house arrest since last year, has dramatically deteriorated in recent days, warning that he is in urgent need of medical treatment.
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.”
“Such an operation carries a high mortality risk at Ayatollah Isa Qasim´s age. He also suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes and a form of heart disease,” BIRD added in its statement.
Ayatollah Qasim is believed to be in his late 70s.
Bahraini activists also reported that Ayatollah Qasim was suffering constant pain and excreting blood.
Meanwhile, former deputy of the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Ali al-Aswad, has said in a statement that the Manama regime was the primary party responsible for Ayatollah Qasim’s health.
The text of Ayatollah Ka’bi’s statement is as follows:
In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Recently, we received grave news about the latest state of the health of the Bahraini religious and national leader, Ayatollah Shaykh Isa Qasim (may God grant him health).
As his doctors have reported, his internal bleeding and the loss of half of his body weight are a grave concern and an alarm regarding the danger to his health and well-being.
Meanwhile, his house is besieged by oppressive military and security forces, and there is no immediate and emergency treatment available to him.
Fast and effective action to restore the health and to save the life of Ayatollah Shaykh Isa Qasim is very essential and necessary given his particular situation and this is a human, legal and religious duty.
We, the honourable sources of emulation, the scholars, teachers and seminary students of the Islamic Seminary of Qom and the believers, are concerned about the health of Ayatollah Shaykh Isa Qasim, and from the vicinity of Lady Fatimah al-Ma’sumah, we ask God Almighty to heal him quickly.
We consider the Al Khalifah regime responsible for any kind of undesirable incident in this regard and we call for the end of the security blockade and the presence of the military and establish the grounds for his treatment and hospitalization.
It is clear that the resistant people of Bahrain with their active presence and spirit in the struggle will continue to demand their legitimate and just rights, especially in regard to the prisoners and religious scholars.
We, alongside the scholars and oppressed people of Bahrain, have special sensitivities and are concerned with and are monitoring the health of the renowned Bahraini spiritual and national leader.
“God will indeed defend those who have faith. Indeed God does not like any ingrate traitor.” [Holy Quran 22:38]
Abbas Ka’bi
28 November, 2017
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