Bahrain must end threats against Shia cleric: Amnesty - Islamic Invitation Turkey
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Bahrain must end threats against Shia cleric: Amnesty

Bahrain must end threats against Shia cleric

Amnesty International (AI) has called on the Bahraini regime to stop the “intimidation” of a Shia Muslim cleric who was stripped of his nationality in 2012, saying Manama must “rescind” the decision.

“This campaign of threats, harassment and intimidation against Sheikh Hussain al-Najati is unacceptable and must stop immediately,” said AI Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program Said Boumedouha on Thursday.

On April 15, the Manama regime gave Ayatollah al-Najati two days to leave his homeland and threatened to harm his family if he failed to do so.

Ayatollah Najati had been among the 31 opposition figures deprived of their Bahraini nationality by the country’s Interior Ministry in 2012.

The Amnesty official further criticized the Manama regime’s decision to revoke the nationality of Ayatollah Najati and the other opposition figures as an “arbitrary attempt to silence all government critics,” stressing, “It should be rescinded immediately.”

On April 16, Bahrain’s main opposition bloc al-Wefaq National Islamic Society also slammed Manama’s move as “unlawful,” saying, “Targeting national religious figures is meant to target the whole people of Bahrain.”

Manama has launched a heavy-handed clampdown on anti-regime protesters since the uprising against the ruling Al Khalifa broke out across the Persian Gulf kingdom in February 2011.

Scores of Bahrainis have so far been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing regime crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.

Earlier this week, Sayed Hadi al-Mousawi, the head of Liberties and Human Rights Department at al-Wefaq said that 228 houses had been raided and as many as 187 arrests had been made by Bahraini forces during March 2014.

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