Alwaght - The UN human rights chief on Tuesday called on Bahrain’s regime to immediately release the leader of the country’s main Shiite opposition group and the European Union warned that his arrest could further destabilize an already fragile political environment, Washington Post reported.
Protests in Bahrain against the detention of the head of Shiite movement, Al-Wefaq, on Sunday, have been marked by clashes with security forces. Sheikh Ali Salman boycotted parliamentary elections, influenced by the ruling Sunni regime.
His arrest has been widely viewed as an escalation that is likely to deepen the political standoff between the Arab nation’s majority Shiite population and its Sunni-led monarchy.
Public prosecutors on Tuesday said Salman would remain in custody for another seven days pending further investigations into statements that allegedly incited violence. The prosecution announced Salman’s week-long detention on its official Twitter page, but did not mention Salman by name.
The spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, urged Bahrain’s regime to immediately release Salman, “as well as all other persons convicted or detained for merely exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”
The UN statement said dialogue and national reconciliation were the only way out of Bahrain’s current crisis.
Bahraini regime who has close relations with the US and Britain, has been gripped by tension since 2011 protests led by majority Shiite Muslims demanding reforms and a bigger role in running the Sunni-led country . Bahrain is host to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet and Britain is going to establish a military base.
The movement has played a leading role in the mostly Shiite-led protests that erupted in February 2011 demanding greater power-sharing between elected lawmakers and the Sunni regime, the release of political prisoners and a prime minister chosen by elected officials and not the king.
Al-Wefaq did not take part in the November poll, saying that parliament would not have enough power and that voting districts favored the kingdom’s Sunni Muslims .
Salman’s defense lawyer Abdulla al-Shamlawi told The Associated Press he is being accused of inciting hatred against the monarchy and calling for its overthrow in a series of speeches made since 2012.
Separately, a Bahraini court on Wednesday sentenced prominent human rights activist Mohammed al-Maskati to six months in jail on charges of taking part in an illegal gathering in 2012, his lawyer said. Bahraini officials could not be reached for comment.
Salman was previously arrested in 1994 for almost three weeks in relation to his political activity. He was deported from Bahrain in 1995 until 2001, before returning home during a period of reconciliation talks between the monarchy and the opposition.
Bahraini regime, for a long time, has been busy naturalizing Sunnis from abroad so that they would eventually outnumber Shiites in the small Persian Gulf kingdom. Al Khalifa has planned to tip the demographic balance of Bahrain in favor of Sunnis in order to save its dictatorship that will be certainly toppled if a democratic election is held. Al Khalifa security forces have suppressed Bahraini pro-democracy protests that erupted on the island during the Islamic Awakening three years ago. They have killed dozens of protesters via bullet and toxic gas, jailed and tortured hundreds without trial exiled many dissidents and revoked their citizenship.
