Bahrain arrests family of Shia activists

21 October, 2010 11:51

Bahrain arrests family of Shia activists

Bahraini-policemen Bahraini security forces have arrested the family members of opposition activists who have spoken out against the government’s growing violence against the country’s Shia community.

According to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Bahraini security forces raided the house of Hasan Mushaimea — one of the leaders of Shia Haq political party — last week and arrested his son Mohammed Mushaimea without any specific charge.

The arrest came a few hours after his father, who is currently in the UK for medical treatment, appeared on a TV channel and criticized the Â deteriorating situation of human rights in Bahrain.

Mushaimea’s family said security forces entered their house and searched everywhere without holding a search warrant. Security forces also confiscated their computer.

In another incident, Bahraini security forces arrested football player Mahdi Sa’ad and banned him from traveling abroad after her sister appeared on the BBC Arabic and slammed Manama’s aggressive approach toward detained opposition activists.

Sa’ad’s sister had also criticized Bahraini authorities for failing to inform her family about the condition of her blind brother, Ali Sa’ad, who was arrested in September. She said it is not clear where he is being held and that her family has not been given permission to visit him.

The BCHR argues that arresting and harassing the relatives and family members of those who criticize the government on TV channels or news agencies abroad demonstrate the authorities’ intolerance toward criticism. It is also an attempt by Manama to hide the reality of what is happening in Bahrain from the world’s public opinion.

The Bahraini opposition has called for an end to the Sunni royal family’s grip on power as the country’s general elections near amid a tight clampdown on critics.

“It is unacceptable that power be monopolized by a single family, even one to which we owe respect and consideration,” head of the Islamic National Accord Association Sheikh Ali Salman said late on Wednesday, AFP reported.

“We look forward to the day where any child of the people, be they Sunni or Shia can become prime minister,” Sheikh Salman told a rallyÂ Â near the capital, Manama, in reference to religious discrimination the Shia majority have been complaining about.

The pro-Western kingdom is to hold parliamentary elections on Saturday in an air soured by a severe crackdown on Shia activists who have campaigned for reform.

Twenty-three Shia activists are planned to go on trial — two in absentia — next week on charges of terrorism offenses and plotting to overthrow the Bahraini government.

Unlike a number of groups which have boycotted Bahrain’s electoral process, Sheikh Salman’s grouping says it is determined to work within the system.

The Islamic National Accord Association Sheikh holds 17 of the 40 seats in the outgoing parliament and will run for 18 this weekend.

“We are not defying anyone’s authority. It’s a political goal that we are working to achieve through legal and political means,” Sheikh Salman said, warning this could take years.

Earlier in October, Amnesty International said that the Sunni-dominated government had detained a total of 250 Shia activists in the run-up to the elections.

Despite reforms that came into force in 2002, Bahrain’s ruling Khalifa family holds on to its grip on the premiership and other key posts ever since the Arab state won independence from Britain in 1971.