Authorities Continue to Prevent Shiites from Performing Largest Friday Prayer

Eyewitnesses said that the authorities arrested a number of citizens heading to the mosque to perform Friday prayers. Meanwhile, activists stressed that the security forces banned the Imam of Friday prayer from entering Diraz, that been besieged since over 3 months after the citizenship of the spiritual leader Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim was revoked.
 
The authorities have launched a widespread campaign in the past months against the opposition, taking a series of harsh measures such as, toughening the opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman's prison sentence, revoking Sheikh Qassim's nationality, dissolving the main political opposition group Al-Wefaq Society, summoning and detaining dozens of Shiite clerics.