A Bahraini appeals court on Sunday sentenced the Shiite opposition leader to life in prison for spying for regional rival Qatar.
Sheikh Ali Salman, leader of the dissolved Al-Wefaq movement, was acquitted by Bahrain’s High Criminal Court in June along with two prominent advisers, Sheikh Hassan Ali Juma Sultan and Ali Mahdi Ali al-Aswad, who were tried in absentia.
The court on Sunday overturned the earlier acquittal and sentenced the three to life in prison for transferring confidential data and receiving money from Qatar.
The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (IBRD) condemned the appeals court’s decision.
“This is political persecution and takes a stand without the permission of the highest authority” of the ruling Al Khalifa family, said BIRD’s advocacy director, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei.
Reacting to the verdict, Amnesty International said it demonstrated “Bahrain’s relentless and illegal efforts to silence the entire bureaucracy of dissent. “
“Sheikh Ali Salman is a prisoner of whom he is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression,” said Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa director.
Victim of the Qatar crisis
Sheikh Ali Salman, who is already serving a four-year criminal sentence for insulting the Interior Ministry and inciting hatred, was charged in November 2017 with conspiracy with Qatar to engage in “hostile acts” against Bahrain.
The fees relate to an alleged recording of a verbal telephone exchange Sheikh Salman had in 2011 with Qatar’s former prime minister and foreign minister, which was broadcast on Bahraini television in August 2017.
The audio recording was released just two months after Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, severed relations with Qatar over its ties to Shiite Iran and the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, which the Gulf monarchies see as a threat.
Protests and repression
Bahrain, where a Sunni minority rules a Shiite majority, has been rocked by unrest since authorities, subsidized with reinforcements from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, carried out a bloody crackdown on Arab Spring protests in 2011.
Sheikh Salman is a prominent figure in protests calling for greater freedoms and a constitutional monarchy.
Al-Wefaq’s motion was dissolved by court order in 2016. Other parties, in addition to the main secular opposition, the National Society for Democratic Action (Waad), were also banned.
Waad leader Nabeel Rajab is recently in prison for criticizing the government in a case condemned by UN and human rights teams as a case of political persecution.
Bahrain accuses Iran of fomenting an armed Shiite opposition amid a series of attacks on security forces and infrastructure.
Bahrain is strategically located in the Persian Gulf and is home to the U. S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. A British naval base in the U. S. and a British naval base.
cw/jlw (AFP, Reuters)