Zainab Al-Khawaja Re-Arrested, Martyr’s Corpse Escalate Protests

Local Editor

Bahraini regime forces have prominent human rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja as a wave of fresh anti-regime protests erupt across the Persian Gulf kingdom.
The activist was reportedly arrested by the Saudi-backed forces at a demonstration held in capital Manama on Wednesday.

Similar protests were also held in the villages of Diraz and Dar Kulaib, and the town of Sanad.
The protests were staged over the Bahraini regime's refusal to hand over the body of Mahmoud Issa al-Jaziri, an anti-regime activist martyred at a demonstration in mid-February.

Jaziri was hit in the head by a tear gas canister on February 14 after security forces attacked anti-regime demonstrators in Nabi Saleh, south of Manama, as they were marking the second anniversary of the uprising.
Jazeeri, 20, died from his wounds, after falling into a coma and suffering from a fractured skull, intra-cerebral bleeding, multiple brain contusions and severe brain edema, the Bahraini Center for Human Rights stated.

Bahrain authorities have refused to hand in Jazeeri's corpse to his family for proper burial, according to opposition activists. The authorities do not appear to have issued a statement with regards to the issue.
Earlier this week, opposition MP Ali Shantoot protested the holding of Jazeeri's body by raising a placard in the middle of a parliamentary meeting that said: "the dignity of the dead is in his burial."

Shantoot was threatened with expulsion from the building.

Protesters took to the street demanding that the government release his corpse. On February 25, Bahraini demonstrators came under tear gas fire as they tried to reach Salmaniya hospital to retrieve Jazeeri's dead body.
The first demonstration was held Tuesday also in Manama as protesters held a symbolic coffin and marched through the city.

Protests in Bahrain have escalated since the movement's second year anniversary on February 14, 2013. The BCHR had documented many cases of severe injuries and two deaths, including Jazeeri's, as a result of government forces' brutality.
Hussain Ali Ahmed Abrahim, a 16 year old teenager was martyred from shotgun wounds in several areas of his body.
More than 90 people have been martyred since the start of the uprising in February 2011.

A Saudi-led Gulf force entered the island in March 2011 to help crush the rebellion, but the country still witnesses almost daily protests. The small but strategic kingdom is home to US Fifth Fleet.

Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org