Al Khalifa Crackdown: Bahrain Regime Detains Four More Clerics

Local Editor

Regime officials in Bahrain detained four more Shia clerics, as the regime continues to suppress political dissent throughout the country.

The Bahraini Manama Post daily reported on Wednesday that Sheikh Imad al-Sho'leh, Sheikh Aziz al-Khazran, Sheikh Monir Ma'tooq, and Sayyed Mohammad al-Ghoraifi had been arrested a day earlier pending interrogation.

Meanwhile, a court in Bahrain also handed down 15-day prison terms to four other Shia clerics, identified as Sheikh Mohammad Jivad al-Shahabi, Sheikh Fazel al-Zaki, Sheikh Ali al-Muhali, and Mula Habib al-Derazi.

The latter four clerics had been charged with organizing protests in Diraz Village in western Bahrain.

Late last month, Bahraini regime forces arrested Sayyed Majid al-Mashaal, a senior Shia cleric and the secretary of the country's Muslim Scholars Council.

In January, a Bahraini court decided to dissolve the council, which included a number of prominent Bahraini Shia scholars, and ordered the liquidation of its assets.

The council had been founded in 2004 under the leadership of prominent Bahraini Shia religious scholar Sheikh Issa Qassim, who has himself been stripped of his citizenship and is being tried at a court over charges of promoting anti-regime dissent.

People in Bahrain have been staging protests since February 2011 to demand that the ruling Al Khalifah regime relinquish power.

The regime has been attempting to counter the protests by launching a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters and their leaders.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team