Human Rights Officials: Salman must be released

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has called on Bahrain to release the country’s main opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman.

On Tuesday, OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell called for the immediate release of Sheikh Salman “as well as all other persons convicted or detained for merely exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”

Sheikh Salman, who was arrested on Sunday, was remanded in custody on Tuesday for a week pending further questioning.

Sheikh Salman is charged with “promoting regime change by force, threats, and illegal means and of insulting the Interior Ministry publicly,” said Bahraini prosecutor Nayef Mahmud.

The European Union also warned on Monday that the arrest of the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society’s leader by the Bahraini regime “carries the risk of jeopardizing an already difficult political and security situation.”

Both the UN and the EU have urged that the only way out of Bahrain’s current crisis is dialogue and national reconciliation.

The Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, has also denounced the Bahraini regime’s prolonged detention of the Sheikh Salman, while warning of repercussions following the opposition leader’s arrest.

Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general Sheikh Naim Qassem said the Al Khalifa regime is committing a mistake.

Bahrain has been witnessing almost daily protests against the Al Khalifa dynasty since early 2011, when an uprising began in the kingdom. Since then, thousands of protesters have held numerous rallies in the streets of Bahrain, calling on the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.