ANSD : Bahrain overturns stripping of 92 Shiites’ citizenship

FRI 22 - 11 - 2024

Date: Jul 3, 2019
Source: The Daily Star

Bahrain overturns stripping of 92 Shiites’ citizenship

_{Agence France Presse}
DUBAI: A Bahraini appeals court overturned a decision to strip the citizenship of 92 Shiites jailed for plotting to form an Iran-linked “terror” group, a judicial source said Sunday.

The 92 were among 138 sentenced to prison terms and the revocation of their citizenship after being convicted of trying to build a Bahraini version of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

“The appeals court overturned the decision to strip the 92 people of their citizenship,” a judicial source told AFP.

“But their prison terms remain the same,” the source added.

The Court of Cassation, Bahrain’s highest court, will issue a final verdict, but the timing of that decision is not known.

The small Gulf state, a key U.S. ally located between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, has been gripped by bouts of unrest since 2011, when authorities cracked down on Shiite-led protests demanding political reform.

In April’s original court ruling, the prosecutor said 69 defendants were sentenced to life in jail, 39 to 10 years, 23 to seven years and the rest to between three and five years imprisonment. Ninety-six of the defendants were also fined 100,000 Bahraini dinars ($265,000) each.

The court verdict was swiftly condemned by the Bahraini opposition, while human rights group Amnesty International decried a “mockery of justice” and “mass arbitrary denationalization.”

Amnesty described the sentences as “outrageous” and a sign of Bahrain’s authorities’ disregard for international judicial standards.

The opposition Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said the mass sentencing was “the largest single incident” since the Bahraini government began revoking nationalities of opponents in 2012.

Since 2012, Manama has stripped the nationalities of 990 people, including 180 this year, the institute said.

Hundreds of protesters have been jailed since 2011, with Bahrain claiming Iran trained and backed demonstrators in order to topple the Manama government - an accusation Tehran denies.

All opposition groups have been banned and disbanded.

Also Sunday, Bahrain’s government announced in a statement that it had amended its citizenship law for a second time in recent years.

The statement said the amended law allows authorities to strip the citizenship of individuals who engage in any act of “terror.”

The earlier change to the law - in response to the protests and unrest that began in 2011 - had given authorities scope to strip the citizenship of anyone engaging in acts deemed “disloyal” to the state.

The king last year signed off on a decree granting military courts the right to try civilians that are accused of “terrorism.”

In June, Bahrain amended its law on political rights, prohibiting leaders and members of dissolved political associations from running in legislative elections.

_{A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on July 01, 2019, on page 7.}

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