Bahrain jails anti-regime protestors

Bahrain’s Fourth High Criminal Court convicted three anti-regime activists to five years in prison and three others to one year in prison each on charges of involvement in violence in the eastern village of Tubli, Bahrain Mirror reported.

The court found the offenders guilty of blocking a street in the village using two garbage bins, dousing scrap tyres with petrol and setting them alight on 14 November last year in protest against Bahrain’s crackdown on personal freedoms.

Meanwhile, dozens took to the streets of the north-western Diraz village on Friday, demanding the release of opposition cleric Ayatollah Isa Qassim, among other political figures imprisoned by the Bahraini regime.

The 79-year-old cleric was stripped of his citizenship by Bahraini authorities on 20 June, less than a week after suspending the Al Wefaq National Islamic Society, Bahrain’s main opposition bloc.

Bahrain is notorious for its crackdown on freedom of speech. Journalists, academics and even citizens who speak out against the government have been systematically arrested and even tortured for their dissent.