Iraq’s Sadr asks Bahrain to pardon Shia
\nJune 14, 2011 share<\/p>\n
Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday called on Bahrain to pardon two Shia protesters sentenced to death over the killing of two policemen in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.<\/p>\n
“I ask the government of Bahrain to grant an amnesty for the two young people sentenced to death for participating in peaceful demonstrations,” he said in a statement from his movement’s headquarters in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf.<\/p>\n
On May 22, a special Bahrain court upheld death sentences for the two, Ali Abdullah Hasan al-Singace and Abdul Aziz Abdullah Ibrahim Hussein, despite international calls for them to be spared.<\/p>\n
The pair, and five others who received life sentences, were accused of running over two policemen during pro-reform protests earlier this year.<\/p>\n
“These things put distance between the government and the people,” Sadr said in the statement. “The government must get closer to the people, and work for their interests.”<\/p>\n
Shia, who form a majority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, began demonstrations in Bahrain on February 14 but were crushed by security forces the following month.<\/p>\n
Authorities said 24 people, including four policemen, were killed in the unrest.
\n-AFP\/NOW Lebanon …source<\/a><\/p>\n