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Bahrain Crackdown: Regime to Auction Opposition’s Seized Assets

Bahrain Crackdown: Regime to Auction Opposition’s Seized Assets
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Local Editor

Amidst the series of crackdown on the opposition, the Bahraini regime will auction al-Wefaq's confiscated assets in the tiny Gulf kingdom after it was dissolved, a judicial source said Saturday.

Bahrain Crackdown: Regime to Auction Opposition’s Seized Assets

An administrative court Thursday ordered the auctioning of al-Wefaq's assets to be held on Oct. 26, the source said.

The group's dissolution in July drew strong criticism from UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Bahrain's allies in Washington and London, as well as Iran.

After the latest court decision, security forces seized al-Wefaq's assets including its headquarters outside Manama and two other offices in Bahraini villages, the source said.

The accusations that led to the ban -- upheld by an appeals court last month -- included "harboring terrorism", inciting violence and encouraging demonstrations that called for reform in the country.

Al-Wefaq's leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, has been behind bars since December 2014 for calling for regime change.

But Monday, Bahrain's cassation court overturned his nine-year jail sentence and ordered a retrial.

Al-Wefaq was the largest group in parliament before its lawmakers resigned en masse in protest at the crushing of reform demonstrations in 2011 calling for an elected government.

Political parties are banned in Bahrain, as in other Gulf Arab states, so al-Wefaq operated as an association.

Also known as the Islamic National Accord Association, al-Wefaq is heir to the Bahrain Freedom Movement which played a key role in the 1990s protests that sought the restoration of the elected parliament scrapped in 1975.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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