DUBAI: Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said Wednesday Bahrain police stormed its offices last week, detaining one staff member and seizing equipment, and accused the Gulf state of violating the right to receive medical care.

Bahrain crushed a pro-democracy protest movement earlier this year, calling in troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and using martial law for over two months, and has accused medical staff of backing protesters.
MSF said a Bahraini volunteer, Saeed Mahdi, was arrested after he called an ambulance to treat a man who had come to MSF premises with a serious head injury.

“It is MSF’s obligation to provide treatment regardless of a patient’s ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation,” MSF said, adding it had complained to the Interior Ministry. A Bahraini Interior Ministry spokesman did not return calls for comment.
The government has accused the pro-democracy protesters, who came mainly from the majority Shiite population, of having a sectarian agenda backed by non-Arab Shiite power Iran, a charge they deny. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet.

The government has also accused medical staff of a major Manama hospital of supporting the protesters and faking and worsening injuries in order to make security forces look bad. Some doctors are on military trial facing such accusations.