Islam Times - Bahraini Regime Withholds Citizenship of Opposition Leader’s Baby

Islam Times - Bahraini regime is withholding the full citizenship of the daughter of prominent Shiite and opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman amid an ongoing brutal crackdown of opponents.

Sheikh Salman’s wife, Alya Radhi, wrote in a post published on her Twitter page that their three-year-old daughter Sareh still does not hold a Bahraini national identity card despite the fact that the child has all the required documents, Arabic-language Lualua newspaper reported.

Radhi added that Bahraini officials are intentionally prolonging the registration process.

On November 1, 2017, the 52-year-old secretary general of the dissolved al-Wefaq National Islamic Society and two of his colleagues, Hassan Sultan and Ali al-Aswad, were charged with “spying on behalf of a foreign country... with the aim of carrying out subversive acts against Bahrain and harming its national interests.”

Sheikh Salman was also charged with “revealing defense secrets to a foreign country and disseminating information that would harm Bahrain's status and reputation.”

The senior Bahraini Shiite cleric has been in jail on a nine-year prison sentence since late 2014 for what the Manama regime has called “insulting” government officials, “inciting” unrest through his speeches targeting the authorities during the 2011 uprising, attempting to overthrow the regime and collaborating with foreign powers.

Sheikh Salman denies all the charges, saying he has merely been seeking reforms in the country through peaceful means.

Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has been witnessing protests against the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty since early 2011, with Manama using brutal measures in an attempt to crush the demonstrations.

Many Bahrainis have been killed and thousands of others injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on the peaceful protests. The regime is also denying citizenship to opponents of the Al Khalifa monarchy.