Bahrain suspends all activities by Shi’a opposition group al-Wefaq

Rasa – Bahrain has suspended all activities by the country’s largest Shi’a political group and frozen its assets, the Bahraini Justice Ministry says.

News ID: 422454

Date: 16 June 2016 - 13:34

RNA – The ministry announced in a statement on Tuesday that the kingdom suspended all activities by al-Wefaq opposition group in the Persian Gulf country.

The Manama regime had already imprisoned al-Wefaq’s secretary general, Shaykh Ali Salman.

He was arrested in December 2014 on charges of attempting to overthrow the Manama regime and collaborating with foreign powers. He denies the allegations, saying he has been seeking reforms in the country through peaceful means.

A Bahraini court, however, sentenced him to four years in prison in June 2015.

On Monday, the Manama regime also detained Nabeel Rajab, a prominent activist and the president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.

He has been arrested several times since the start of the anti-regime uprising in the Persian Gulf country in 2011.

Rajab was sentenced to six months in prison in January 2015 for posting tweets critical of the Al Khalifah regime. In May last year, a Bahraini court upheld Rajab’s jail sentence.

Rajab, who is also a co-founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, has been critical of Manama’s heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful anti-regime protests.

Since February 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations on an almost daily basis in Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifah regime to relinquish power.

In March that year, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to the country to assist the Bahraini regime in its crackdown on peaceful protests.

Al Khalifah regime has given long jail sentences to protesters and activists in an attempt to silence opposition voices in the country.

It has long been under fire by the Amnesty International and many other international rights organizations for rampant human rights abuses against opposition activists and anti-regime protesters.

Inherently devoted to peace and national stability, Shi’a opposition groups, among them al-Wefaq, seek to promote democratic changes in Bahrain.

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