Ayatollah Seddiqi urges Manama to set opposition leader free

Rasa – Ayatollah Seddiqi has urged the Manama regime to release Bahraini opposition leader Shaykh Ali Salman arrested a few days ago.

News ID: 1948

Date: 02 January 2015 - 20:23

RNA - Addressing worshippers during Friday Prayers in the Iranian capital, Tehran, Ayatollah Kazem Seddiqi said the Bahrain regime should “heed the warning by [Grand] Ayatollah [Ali Hoseyni] Sistani (Iraq's most influential cleric) and release Shaykh Salman as soon as possible.”

Bahraini forces on Sunday detained Salman who leads the country’s main opposition bloc, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society.

Ayatollah Seddiqi further dismissed Salman’s apprehension as “illegal” and “immoral,” and added his arrest does not mean the Sunnis are squaring off against the Shi’as in Bahrain.

“One cannot say that a Sunni minority in the Bahraini government is standing against the majority Shi’a people, because they (Bahraini rulers) are neither Sunni nor Shi’a,” said the cleric.

“Rather, they (Bahraini rulers) are the United States and Britain’s agents who think they can put the brakes on this movement through pressure, imprisonment, [making] arrests, [using] batons and tear gas, and the destruction of mosques and prayer sites,” Ayatollah Seddiqi went on to say.

He urged the Bahraini rulers to “come to their senses” and heed international calls for Salman’s release.

Bahrain’s arrest of Shaykh Salman came as the 49-year-old respected cleric secured a new four-year term in al-Wefaq's general congress last Friday.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of protesters have held numerous rallies in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifah royal family to relinquish power.

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