Alwaght- Bahraini regime has dissolved the country’s main opposition bloc, al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, intensifying crackdown on Shiite majority.
Bahrain's administrative court in the capital city of Manama ordered on Sunday the dissolution of al-Wefaq and the seizure of its funds almost a month after the regime suspended its activities.
The Bahraini justice ministry had suspended the opposition group’s activities on June 14 while its political chief Sheikh Ali Salman was serving a nine-year jail term on trumped up charges of inciting violence.
Sheikh Ali Salam, leader of Al-Wefaq Opposition Bloc
The latest move, part of a wide crackdown on political dissent in Bahrain, is certain to prompt more protests in the country, whose embattled regime has faced an uprising since 2011.
The western-backed Al Khalifa regime has also stripped Shiites' spiritual leader Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Qassim of his Bahraini citizenship over similar accusations. On Saturday, the public prosecutor in Bahrain said the cleric will go on trial early next month on charges of “illegal fund collections and money laundering,” without providing an exact date.
Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim
Since February 2011, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations on an almost daily basis, calling for the Al Khalifah regime to relinquish power.
In March that year, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — themselves repressive Arab regimes — were deployed to the country to help in the crackdown on peaceful protests.
