Bahrain Dissidents Said to Get Prison Sentences

Bahrain Dissidents Said to Get Prison Sentences
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/world/middleeast/bahrain-dissidents-said-to-get-prison-sentences.html
By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: September 29, 2013

ISTANBUL — A court in Bahrain handed down sentences of between 5 and 15 years in jail for 50 people on Sunday whom the authorities accused of belonging to a protest movement seeking to overthrow the government, human rights activists said.

The Reuters news agency reported that officials were preparing an announcement about the court’s action, but by late Sunday night none had been issued.

The defendants in the case included a prominent human rights worker, political activists and several exiled opponents of the government, the activists said.

The court’s action, if it is confirmed, would appear to be part of a widening effort by the authorities to quash protests led by members of Bahrain’s Shiite majority against the Sunni monarchy, which has been accused by its opponents of discriminating against Shiites and monopolizing power. It seemed likely to fuel further criticism of the monarchy, which has imprisoned or detained a growing number of its most vocal opponents over the last two and a half years of protests.

Earlier this month, in an escalation of the crackdown, the authorities arrested Khalil al-Marzooq, a former member of Parliament and a leader in Bahrain’s mainstream opposition group, al-Wefaq, which had been engaged in dialogue with the government.

In June, the authorities announced the arrest of “key actors” in the February 14th Youth Coalition, named for the day in 2011 when protests erupted in Bahrain, joining a wave of popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the region.

As the protests have persisted, in what Bahrain’s opposition calls the “forgotten revolt,” the February 14th Youth Coalition has emerged as a leading organizer of the demonstrations, many of them staged in Bahrain’s neglected Shiite villages.

The government has portrayed the group as a clandestine movement of foreign-backed militants, citing as evidence the use of explosives, the blocking of roads and burning of tires during violent confrontations with the police. In announcing the arrests, the government said that defendants had admitted their responsibility for several attacks.

Said Yousif al-Muhafda of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said that some of the defendants told the judge in the case that they had confessed after being tortured. He said the detainees included Naji Fateel, a human rights activist who was sentenced to 15 years.

Mr. Muhafda said it was implausible that Mr. Fateel and other activists who frequently spoke to the news media were part of a hidden conspiracy, as the government alleged.

“They don’t do anything in secret — they work publicly,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on September 30, 2013, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Bahrain Dissidents Said to Get Prison Sentences.

Commentary:

The enclosed news item was reported by The New York Times, once again manifesting the dastardly deeds of the most cruel and criminal Salafi Monarchy of Bahrain. Shia citizens of Bahrain are being tortured and imprisoned, for the past several years, simply because they are asking for their most fundamental civil rights and human rights. According to the latest count hundreds of such innocent Bahraini Shias are rotting in the Jails of this reprehensible regime and its parent Saudi Arabia.

By the way, a week has gone by and we have not heard a single word of sympathy uttered either by MPAC or CAIR, the so-called champions of Islam and Muslims, who quite actively pursued the U.S government to take military action against Syria, an Islamic state, for its treatment of Syrian citizens. Also, on September 24,2013, while meeting in New York, with Dr. Hassan Rouhani, President, Islamic Republic of Iran, Salam Al-Marayati, the MPAC representative had the audacity to challenge the recently elected President of the Islamic Republic about the status of a few Iranian individuals who have been incarcerated in that country for various reasons. It is quite possible that when it comes to human rights, MPAC and CAIR have different set of standards for the Rafadoons.

Long live Muslim unity and hail to the Pan Islam !

Agha (Shaukat) Jafri