Bahrain Arrests Two Former Wefaq MPs

Bahraini authorities have arrested two former MPs from the Al-Wefaq main opposition group, in a continued attempt to crash the opposition, a member of the organization told AFP on Tuesday.

Jawad Fayruz (L) Matar Matar (R)
Matar Matar and Jawad Fayruz were taken from their homes on Monday evening, former MP Hadi al-Mousawi told AFP. He said some 20 masked gunmen in plainclothes stormed the house of Fayruz in Hamad Town, and took him away after searching the building.

Matar was taken from his home in the village of Deih west of Manama, he added. “We do not have any information about them” said Mousawi, adding that Fayruz’s family went to a police station and reported that masked gunmen had taken him away. “We do not know why the two (former) MPs have been arrested… It is strange that they have arrested them this way when they could have summoned them normally,” he said.

Matar had continued to condemn via the foreign media Bargain’s heavy-handed clampdown on the opposition after the quashing of a month-long pro-democracy protest.

The two had resigned from the parliament in February to protest Manama’s deadly crackdown on opposition demonstrations.

Bahrain has come under strong criticism from international rights’ groups after it quashed the protest in mid-March and hunted protesters in their villages and hospitals. Many were said to have been dismissed from their jobs for taking part in the protests.