Date: Jun 9, 2011
Source: Agence France Press
Bahrain bans seminar about crackdown

DUBAI (AFP) – Bahrain's main Shiite opposition group said Wednesday it has been banned from going ahead with a presentation detailing abuses committed during a government crackdown on Shiite-led protests this year.
"Authorities have banned a presentation on 'the atrocities of human rights violations since February 14'," said the Islamic National Accord Association (Al-Wefaq).


Hadi al-Moussawi, one of 18 Al-Wefaq MPs who resigned from parliament in protest at the March crackdown, told AFP a security official had called the movement warning the event was "illegal because authorities were not informed."


Moussawi said the warning was strange as the group had never had to inform authorities of seminars held inside its premises in the past.
The interior ministry said meanwhile the seminar was not banned and that the group was requested to notify the authorities.


"The Al-Wefaq seminar wasn?t banned today. The organisers were asked to present notification according to law for being a public meeting," it said in a statement on its Twitter page.
The ban on the event came just a week after Bahrain announced the lifting of a state of emergency it imposed in mid-March when it crushed the month-long protests with the help of military intervention by its Gulf neighbours.