…from beneath the crooked bough, witness 230 years of brutal tyranny by the al Khalifas come to an end

Bahrain sentences Shiite activist to 5 years
AP – 1 hr 7 mins ago

MANAMA, Bahrain – Bahrain’s security court on Thursday convicted a Shiite opposition activist and sentenced him to five years in prison for the attempted murder of a policeman during anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom. The Bahrain News Agency said another activist was acquitted of the same charge in the court that was set up after emergency rule was imposed in March. The report said the convicted protester, Abdulla Mohammed Habib, can appeal his sentence.

Bahrain’s king declared martial law March 15 to crush weeks of demonstrations by the island’s Shiite majority, which has campaigned for greater freedoms and an elected government in the Sunni-ruled nation. At least 30 people have died since the protests, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, began in February. Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders, athletes, activists and Shiite professionals such as doctors and lawyers have been detained in the past month.

Last week, four Shiite activists were sentenced to death for killing two policemen during the protests. Three others were convicted as the accomplices in the killing and were sentenced to life in prison. On Tuesday, Bahrain’s Justice Minister Khaled bin Ali Al Khalifa said 23 doctors and 24 nurses have been charged for their role in the unrest, including for participating in attempts to topple the island’s Sunni monarchy and taking part in illegal rallies.

Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, Washington’s main counterweight against Iran’s expanding military influence in the oil-rich Gulf. …source

Bahrain court convicts Shiite activist, sends him to prison for 4 years over protest violence
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, May 5, 6:40 AM

MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain’s military court has convicted a Shiite opposition activist and sentenced him to five years in prison for the attempted murder of a policeman during anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom. The Bahrain News Agency says another activist was acquitted of the same charge on Thursday.

Bahrain’s king declared martial law in March to crush weeks of demonstrations by the island’s Shiite majority, which has campaigned for greater freedoms in the Sunni-ruled nation. At least 30 people have died since the protests began in February. Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders, doctors and lawyers have been detained since emergency rule was imposed.

Last week, four Shiite activists were sentenced to death for killing two policemen during the protests. …source

UN rights chief slams Bahrain military trials

GENEVA, May 05, 2011 (AFP) – UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Thursday condemned death sentences imposed by military courts in Bahrain on protestors accused of killings as well as military trials for civilian activists. “The application of the death penalty without due process and after a trial held in secrecy is illegal and absolutely unacceptable,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

“The defendants are entitled to fair trials before civil courts, in accordance with international legal standards and in keeping with Bahrain’s international human rights obligations,” she added in a statement. Bahraini authorities have referred 47 doctors and nurses to a military court after accusing them of abusing their posts to take part in anti-regime protests that were crushed in March.

The UN human rights office said four protestors were sentenced to death last week and three to life imprisonment for the alleged killing of two policemen. They were reportedly held without access to their families and limited access to lawyers, it added. The Gulf kingdom, which is ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, has come under strong criticism from international human rights organisations for its heavy-handed crackdown on Shiites, including medical staff.

Authorities have said that 24 people were killed during the unrest, most of them demonstrators. …source

Urgent from #Bahrain Arrest of Secretary General of the Islamic Action Society Sheikh Mohamed Ali AlMahfoodh

Arrest of Sheikh Mohamed Ali AlMahfoodh
His and all of the detainees lives and safety are the responsibility of the king, his allies and supporters

In the name of Allah, the most merciful, most graceful

The Islamic Action Society declares that the Bahraini authorities have detained Sheikh Mohamed Ali AlMahfoodh, Secretary General of the Society, one of the widely known clergymen around the Islamic world and one of the opposition symbols in the country, a leader of a major civil society organization elected freely by its members. Sadly, the arrest of Sheikh AlMahfoodh falls in the course of a vicious repression campaign and a gag, freedom depriving system, launched by the authorities in response to the peaceful demands of the citizens of Bahrain of freedoms and human rights that are recognized worldwide, as well as the arrest of a religious leadership being a breach of local norms.
His arrest, also falls in a series of arrests of many citizens who compose the constructive fabric of the country and political and social leaders as a clear and frank response from the authorities in Bahrain to the calls of the international community for them to respect the freedoms and basic human rights and respect the right to peaceful expression of opinion.

The Bahraini authorities had already targeted the family of Sheikh AlMahfoodh and severely beat them after attacking his home in Bani Jamra and took his minor 16 year-old son Hassan as a hostage. By arrested Sheikh AlMahfoodh and his two sons, being the leader of the Society, the authorities have eliminated the Society itself, having already arrested most of the board members and over 40 staff members, which is a dangerous precedent, the first of its kind, to completely eliminate a major political society and place it behind bars. …more

Bahrain, Kingdom of Silence
Toby C. Jones May 4, 2011 comments

An eerie silence and a paralyzing sense of fear currently grip Bahrain. Since mid-March, when tens of thousands of protesters last took to the streets demanding political reform, Bahraini security and military forces have engaged in an ongoing, systematic, and brutal campaign to crush the country’s pro-democracy forces. The crackdown has been sweeping and shocking. Dozens of activists have been killed. Hundreds more have been imprisoned and tortured. Bahrain’s leading independent newspaper, al-Wasat, is expected to close down on May 10.

Provocative government actions belie claims that all the monarchy seeks is to re-establish law and order. It is apparent, instead, that the government is using martial law to carry out a vendetta against those who challenged the authority of the ruling al-Khalifa. Checkpoints have been set up to harass the country’s Shi’i citizens, who make up the majority of Bahrain’s native population and of its political opposition. Security forces have laid siege to the island’s hospitals and arrested scores of medical personnel, in what appears to be an especially inhumane and spiteful kind of intimidation. For weeks police and pro-regime supporters roamed the streets of Shi’i villages destroying cars and other property. Those who supported the protests now fear leaving their homes, lest they be publicly accosted or, worse, arrested and disappeared.

The regime is also taking dramatic steps to quiet critics. Authorities have targeted newspapers, journalists, and bloggers in order to stymie public criticism, to control reporting about the scale of the crackdown, and to frighten into silence those who might speak out. In the last few weeks Bahraini blogs and twitter feeds that are normally vibrant have gone quiet, stunned into submission by the brutality of what is happening around them.

And they have reason to fear. Those who have spoken out or who have attempted to report events going on around them are paying a high price. …more

Bahrain’s Al Wasat daily to shut down next week
Heavy financial losses force Al Wasat newspaper in Bahrain to shut down

By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Published: 18:20 May 3, 2011 Gulf News

Manama: Al Wasat daily, one of the five Arabic dailies in Bahrain, said that it would shut down next week, citing heavy financial losses.

The decision was supported by 18 board members and opposed by 14 at a meeting held on Monday to decide on the paper’s future after it waded into controversy last month and its editor in chief Mansoor Al Jamri resigned.

The daily was accused by the official media authority of misleading the public by publishing stories that were reportedly lifted from Palestinian and Moroccan newspapers and that created negative feelings about the security situation in Bahrain.

The daily’s former editor-in-chief, editor and local news editor were questioned by the public prosecutor over the issue.

Media sources said that the daily started facing advertisement problems and investors did not wish to take further risks and lose money. …more

In Bahrain, World Press Non-Freedom Day
Written bySolana Larsen
Posted 3 May 2011 22:28 GMT

Today is World Press Freedom Day, a day that is being commiserated more than celebrated in many nations, including Bahrain, where journalists and bloggers are currently under siege by government.

Ironically, one of those world leaders celebrating World Press Freedom Day is King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, one of 38 heads of state who have been named “predators of press freedom” by Reporters Without Borders. He issued a statement today saying that he believes “a free, impartial and independent Press is the backbone of democratic development.”

However, he also offered a few disclaimers, encouraging media to “move away from provoking hatred” as well as from provoking “violence, vandalism or terrorism” and “breaking the law or violating public morals and people’s dignity.”

Though the king said that “no one will be harmed because of peaceful and civilised expressions of opinion under the law,” more than 70 journalists, online writers, and bloggers have recently been fired, arrested, or threatened in Bahrain, according to an online spreadsheet released by Bahrain Center for Human Rights today.

Nearly 20 of those mentioned on the spreadsheet are bloggers or online activists. Among them is the founder of Al Dair online forum, Zakariya Al Aushayri, who died in prison on April 9, 2011. Others have been arrested, interrogated, or classified as “traitors”. Founder of BahrainOnline.org and Global Voices Advocacy contributor Ali Abdulemam was previously arrested and is now living undercover within Bahrain. …more

Bahraini authorities have referred 47 medics to a military court after accusing them of abusing their posts to take part in anti-regime protests that were crushed in March.

The defendants include 24 doctors and 23 nurses, the kingdom’s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) said in a statement late Tuesday, adding that the military prosecution has already leveled several charges against them.

Authorities set up a military court after King Hamad declared a state of national safety, a lower level of emergency, a day before security forces crushed a Shiite-dominated month-long protest demanding democratic reforms.

The medics have all worked at the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama, which was stormed by security forces after they drove protesters on March 16 out of the nearby Pearl Square – the focal point of protests inspired by uprisings that have swept the Arab world.

At the time, Bahraini state media accused medics who sympathized with the protesters of occupying the SMC and turning it into a protest ground. …more

As Saudi-backed Bahraini authorities prepared to carry out death sentences against four anti-government protesters for the murder of two security officers, forces loyal to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa continued their campaign of arresting physicians and nurses to make it impossible for them see and treat wounds allegedly inflicted by government gunmen.

Twenty-three doctors and 24 nurses were arrested yesterday and charged with a laundry list of crimes including, embezzlement of public funds, physical assault on civilians, assault leading to death, possession of unlicensed weapons and ammunition, failure to carry out their employment duties, in aims of hindering medical work, consequently endangering people’s health and lives, attempting to forcefully occupying a public building, efforts to bring down and change the regime by illegal means,
inciting hatred against the governing regime, promoting sectarian hate, spreading false news and rumors that harm public interest, and participating in unlicensed protests and rallies.

The arrests included Dr. Ahmed Jamal, president of the Bahrain Medical Society. …more

Journalists in Bahrain: The Murder of Free Speech and the Siege of Freedom

More than 68 journalists have been subjected to lay-off, arrest and threats because of their work Bahraini journalists call for a helping hand and for the adoption of measures to insure their safety. – 3 May 2011

Since the 14th of February 2011, Bahrain has seen a political movement demanding freedom, democracy, and the revival of communal partnership in the framework of the civil movements seeking freedom which are currently overrunning Arab countries. This was followed by brutal security crackdowns and the entry of the Peninsula Shield forces (Military units of 6 Gulf countries) into Bahrain. Journalists engaged in this event with daily coverage through both their jobs at local newspapers, through their announcements on satellite television stations, by writing to Arabic newspapers in the framework of their presence at the site of action, and via effective action through online social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Because of that, journalists have been subjected to a campaign of lay-offs and collective arrests affecting more than 68 journalists, while many have received different threats originating from the Bahraini authorities, its associated organizations, and affiliated parties. The online activist Zakariya Al Aushayri has been killed in detention and Reporters without Borders have released an official statement demanding an investigation into the incident, indeed the reporters Faisal Hayyat, Hayder Mohammad, Ali Jawad, and other bloggers and e-activist have been arrested. Warrants have been issued for others as well, causing some to leave Bahrain, in fear of their personal safety. …more

Bahrain doctors to be tried for helping protesters
Tuesday, May 3, 2011, in Isa Town, Bahrain. — PHOTO: AP

MANAMA – BAHRAIN’S justice minister says several doctors and nurses who treated injured anti-government protesters during months of unrest in the Gulf kingdom will be tried in a military court. Khaled bin Ali Al Khalifa says 23 doctors and 24 nurses face several protest-related charges, including participating in attempts to topple the Sunni monarchy.

He listed the charges at a press conference in the capital Manama on Tuesday. Dozens of doctors, nurses and other medical staff have been in custody since March, when the king declared martial law to crush Shiite dissent. International rights groups say Bahrain is targeting medical professionals who treated injured demonstrators at the Salmaniya medical center, which was later overrun by the military. — AP

List of Charges
by Bahrain Youth society for Human Rights

Defendants:

24 Doctors.
23 Nurses.

The following list of accusations has been made against the medical staff:

1. The inexcusable refrain from aiding people.
2.The embezzlement of public funds.
3.physical assault on other.
4. Assault leading to death.
5.The possession of unlicensed weapons and ammunition.
6. Refraining from carrying out their employment duties, in aims of hindering medical work, consequently endangering people’s health and lives.
7. The attempt of forcefully occupying a public building.
8.Promotion to bring down and change the regime by illegal means.
9. Accused of inciting hatred against the governing regime.
10.Promoting sectarian hate.
11.Spreading false news and rumours that harm the public interest.
12.Participating in unlicensed protests and rallies.

…source

The Bahraini government has arrested two prominent politicians belonging to the mainly Shia opposition Al Wefaq party, Al Jazeera has learnt. Both Jawad Ferooz, the vice-president of the party, and Mattar Ibrahim Mattar, who recently resigned as a member of parliament, were detained on Monday evening, sources said.

The arrests came a day after Mattar spoke to Al Jazeera about the threats to opposition politicians, as well as the presence, if any, of a sectarian divide amongst protesters. “As an example of the threats … a brother of a member of parliament had been killed in custody, and also some of the activists in Wefaq, they already started to attack them, and to arrest them. In fact, yes they didn’t close Al Wefaq, but Al Wefaq is a vacuum currently,” he said.

“It is difficult for us to move and to communicate with people. [There is] no space any more for political movement, and political activities that we can do. No space for movement and freedom of speech and the basic humanitarian issues, such as medical services.” Mattar told Al Jazeera that Sunnis and Shias alike had been arrested, which indicated that there was not a strong sectarian divide amongst anti-government protesters. …more

HRW says Bahrain should set aside death sentences
02 May 2011, Monday / AP, DUBAI

Bahrain should set aside death sentences that a military court passed on four men over the killing of two policemen during anti-government protests, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday. HRW also urged the kingdom to set aside the convictions of three men sentenced to life in prison for their alleged involvement in the killings in March. It argued the accused were kept from meeting lawyers and defending themselves.

“By establishing these special courts, the government of Bahrain is making it near impossible for defendants to enjoy the rights to which they are entitled,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at the rights group. The verdicts came amid heightened antagonism between Bahrain’s Shi’ite Muslim majority and its Sunni ruling family after Bahrain crushed anti-government protests in March with military help from fellow Sunni-led Gulf Arab neighbours.

“The role of the military prosecutor, the makeup of the special court, and the meager access to legal representation undermine the most basic due process protections,” Stork said. HRW said the trial and sentencing of the seven defendants, aged 19 to 24, lasted less than two weeks. They were the first civilians convicted in special military courts set up after the declaration of martial law on March 15.

It was only the third time in more than three decades that a death sentence had been issued against citizens of Bahrain, a U.S. ally which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. …source

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, May 2nd, 2011 — 7:55 pm

PARIS — Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) added Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa to its latest blacklist of “predators” against press freedom on Tuesday.

The king entered the watchdog’s list of 38 state “predators” that “sow terror among journalists”, which included three Arab countries hit by recent protests — Syria, Bahrain, Yemen — and Libya, where conflict has broken out.

RSF said journalists were killed in each of these countries, citing cases including that of Karim Fakhrawi, a Bahraini journalist close to the opposition, who died in detention.

Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia were no longer on this list after they were driven from power in revolutions this year.

The watchdog said crackdowns were under way by authorities in countries including China that fear “contagion” from the wave of pro-democracy protests in the Arab world.

The list also includes warlords and armed entities such as the Israeli armed forces, the forces of Hamas in Gaza and the Basque armed group ETA. …source

UAE: Civil Society Crackdown Widens
Government Takes Over a Second Group’s Board
May 3, 2011

(London) – The United Arab Emirates expanded its crackdown on civil society on May 2, 2011, by dissolving the elected board of directors of the Teachers’ Association, Human Rights Watch said today. This was the second prominent civil society organization to face a hostile government takeover in less than two weeks.

“This attack on civil society is further proof that those in power in the UAE see anyone calling for reform as fair game,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “UAE authorities should immediately stop their hostile takeover of civil society and free the peaceful democracy activists.”

The decree, signed by Social Affairs Minister Mariam Mohammed Khalfan Al Roumi, dismissed the Teachers’ Association’s board and replaced its members with state appointees. The minister issued a similar decree issued on April 21, dissolving the board of the Jurist Association. On April 6, both associations, along with two other nongovernmental organizations, co-signed a public appeal calling for greater democracy in the country. Since April 8, the UAE has also detained at least five prominent democracy activists.

According to the decree, the Teachers’ Association violated section 16 of the UAE’s 2008 Law on Associations, which prohibits nongovernmental organizations and their members from interfering “in politics or in matters that impair state security and its ruling regime.” The ministerial decree against the Jurist Association cited the same infraction. The Law on Associations tightly controls nongovernmental organizations permitted to operate in the UAE. The Teachers’ Association was established in 1980 to represent and defend the rights of teachers and has more than 280 Emirate members. …more

Bahrain Slams Foreign Media for Description of Protesters Sentenced to Death — Official Statement Objects to Calling Them ‘Protesters’
by Jason Ditz, May 01, 2011

The Bahraini government’s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) issued a statement this weekend angrily condemning the global media for its coverage of the trial of several Shi’ite protesters sentenced to death.

According to Bahrain’s state news agency, the IAA objected to the foreign media referring to the protesters as “protesters.” The state media referred to them only as “criminals” or “terrorists,” and those seem to have been the government’s preferred terms.

The IAA insisted it was unprofessional for media outlets to refer to them as protesters, saying that it gave the impression that they “have the right to protest.” The seven charged were in fact protesting at the time and were accused of killing two police during the crackdown against Shi’ite protests. …more

[this letter has been authenticated and published as a public record of it’s exisence]

Dear Mr President,

I am writing to you from Bahrain. First, I would like to congratulate you concerning Bin Ladin.  However, I am writing to you concerning my country Bahrain. I am the daughter of Sheikh Moahmmed Ali Almahfoodh, the chairman of Amal Islamic Society.  I would like to tell you that yesterday he was detained with my two brothers to an unknown destination. A month ago, my husband was arrested as a hostage.

Mr President, This action is your full responsibility, since your policy is to spread democracy.  Your administration condemned the dissolve of the societies, and therefore, you have the upper hand to release my father and brothers, and husband.   My mother has collapsed as to the news.  I beseech your help and protection, and whatever happens to my detained family is under your responsibility.

Finally, I strongly urge your administration to prove to the world that the US respects their values and morals, and not double standards as many people are pointing out currently.  I always looked at the US constitution as my aspiration to a better world.
I want to thank you for your time, and I hope something happens to reunite my family again.

Best wishes,
Hajar Mahfoodh

We have received information from reliable sources that Bahrain’s Amal Islamic Society Chairman, Sheikh Moahmmed Ali Almahfoodh and his sons, Hussein Almahfoodh, 26 years old, and Hasan Almahfoodh, 17 years old, who have been in hiding since the al Khalifa regimes crackdown to eliminate democracy and human rights advocates, were detained around 3:00AM May 2nd, Bahrain time. …more information to follow.

Berlin May Day demo condemns ongoing Bahrain repression
Berlin, May 1, IRNA —

Berlin’s traditional May Day demonstration condemned on Sunday the ongoing brutal repression in Bahrain, while calling for an immediate withdrawal of all Saudi military forces from the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.
Waving numerous Bahraini flags, demonstrators strongly condemned the crimes committed by the Bahraini regime.

They urged the release of all political prisoners in Bahrain and a full international probe of massive human rights violations in that country.

Demonstrators deplored the desecration of mosques by the Bahraini regime. Protesters demanded a swift pullout of Saudi troops from Bahrain.

At Manama’s request, several Arab Persian Gulf states, notably Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have dispatched troops to help quell the uprising in the country in March, a move which the Bahraini opposition has branded ‘an occupation.’

Meanwhile, protesters lambasted western countries, namely the US and European Union, for their double-standard when dealing with the brutal crackdown of the Bahraini regime.

Dozens of Bahraini protesters have been killed in government crackdowns which included also the use of live ammunition, according to human rights activists.

Hundreds of people had been arrested, and hundreds more were fired from their jobs for participating in pro-democracy demonstrations against the Bahraini regime which began in mid-February. …source

Hueys Over Yemen
by Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt, April 29, 2011

Recently, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates attended a groundbreaking ceremony at Mount Vernon for a National Library for the Study of George Washington. (“I’d like to thank the Mount Vernon Ladies Association for extending this invitation to me…”) He used the occasion for a full-throated defense of the American right to support democracy and freedom with extreme and remarkably self-interested selectivity in the Middle East. “The most successful leaders, starting with Washington,” he told the ladies, “have steadfastly encouraged the spread of liberty, democracy, and human rights… We have at times made human rights the centerpiece of our national strategy even as we did business with some of the worst violators of human rights. We have worked with authoritarian governments to advance our own security interests even while urging them to reform…”

And here, after a fashion, was the good news he had to offer, if you didn’t happen to be a Bahraini, a Yemeni, or from other states where we still like “doing business” with those “violators of human rights” and “authoritarian governments”: “When we discuss openly our desire for democratic values to take hold across the globe,” he said, taking a conveniently long view of history, “we are describing a world that may be many years or decades off.” …more

International Freedom of Expression Exchange: The global network for free expression

29 April 2011
Campaigns and Advocacy
Journalists, cyber activists in the line of fire

Journalists & Cyber Activists: In the Line of Fire

Although the ripple effects of the uprisings differ from country to country, the ongoing persecution of journalists and cyber activists remains a serious cause for concern for ARTICLE 19. Against this backdrop of continued unrest, a disturbing pattern of violence, harassment and intimidation against journalists, cyber activists and bloggers covering widespread civil unrest is emerging.

There have been widespread allegations of human rights violations and disappearances during the pro-democracy protests, and many journalists, human rights defenders, bloggers and cyber activists have been detained in a number of countries, including in Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria. Accusations of torture of protesters and journalists especially in Syria and Bahrain are beginning to emerge, as the scale of government clampdowns is emerging.

ARTICLE 19 calls for the immediate release of all imprisoned peaceful protesters and political prisoners, including journalists and bloggers that are being detained in the context of pro-democracy protests. In addition, the authorities should immediately investigate and disclose the fate and whereabouts all those who are missing, and immediately inform their families.
…more

Bahrain: Beginning of international awareness amid more anti-Shia campaign
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 23/04/2011 – 1:46 p

As the ramifications of the Al Khalifa snub to Catherine Ashton, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs threaten serious rifts between Europe and GCC, the international pressure on Bahrain’s dictatorship has already been stepped up.

Yesterday UK’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague has criticised the Al Khalifa for their human rights abuses and attacks on free speech and medical rights of citizens. He defended the rights of Bahrainis to protest peacefully and express their views. Ms Ashton had earlier called for the immediate release of political prisoners whom Amnesty International had considered “prisoners of conscience”, and the right of Bahrainis to determine their destiny. The United States has yet to declare a clear stand on the ongoing revolution in that country and stop its double standard policy. Washington has expressed less negative stands to the pro-democracy protests in other countries; Libya, Yemen and Syria but supported the Saudi invasion and the violent crackdown against the pro-democracy movement in Bahrain. …more

US raps Bahrain over speed of trial
AFP – Fri Apr 29, 4:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Friday criticized Bahrain over the speed of a trial in which Shiite pro-democracy protesters were sentenced to death and life in prison for killing two policemen.

State Department Policy Planning Director Jacob Sullivan also said Washington has urged Bahrain at the highest levels to move toward “a comprehensive political dialogue” to end the political unrest.

Sullivan criticized a Bahraini military court over the speed with which it sentenced four Shiite protesters to death and three to life in prison Thursday for the killing of two policemen at a crackdown on a pro-democracy rally. …more

“If you wish to be assailed with problems, to lose all comfort…then allow the spirit of antagonism to take hold and spread in your country,” he said.

“This is a fire which may seem manageable at first, but is ultimately beyond control…and its consequences are always grave.”

Shi’ite worshipers condemn Bahrain death sentences
By Frederik Richter

MANAMA | Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:04pm EDT

MANAMA (Reuters) – Thousands of Bahraini Shi’ites gathered before a revered cleric on Friday denounced death sentences given to protesters over anti-government rallies crushed last month in the U.S.-allied Gulf kingdom.

The verdict, handed down by a military court a day earlier to four men accused of killing two policemen in violent protests last month, could intensify sectarian tension in the Sunni Muslim-led state that hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

“It’s not true that they killed them,” said a man who identified himself only as Moussa, after praying at the mosque of Sheikh Issa Qassim, as a police helicopter circled overhead. “The government made it up just like a movie.”

He was referring to video footage that Bahraini authorities have circulated showing the two policemen smashed by a vehicle that sped through a crowd of protesters, some of whom appeared to then trample and kick the fallen men.

Police kept a tight grip on roads leading to the village where the mosque is located, turning back many vehicles.

The rulings were only the third time in over 30 years that a death sentence had been given to a Bahraini citizen.

They have further divided a country whose Shi’ite majority says it faces systematic discrimination, but whose Sunni leaders warn Shi’ite giant Iran is trying to extend its regional influence by manipulating its co-religionists.

“The sentence was appropriate,” said Mohammad al-Ammadi, a Sunni lawmaker, citing what he saw as the extreme brutality of the killings. “This is the first time this happened in Bahrain.”

In his sermon, the cleric Sheikh Issa Qassim alluded to the growing rift in the country.

“If you wish to be assailed with problems, to lose all comfort…then allow the spirit of antagonism to take hold and spread in your country,” he said.

“This is a fire which may seem manageable at first, but is ultimately beyond control…and its consequences are always grave.” …more

Bahrainis protest death sentences
irishtimes.com – Last Updated: Friday, April 29, 2011, 19:46

Thousands of Bahraini Shi’ites gathered before a revered cleric today denounced death sentences given to protesters over anti-government rallies crushed last month in the US-allied Gulf kingdom.

The verdict, handed down by a military court yesterday to four men accused of killing two policemen in violent protests last month, could intensify sectarian tension in the Sunni Muslim-led state that hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

“It’s not true that they killed them,” said a man who identified himself only as Moussa, after praying at the mosque of Sheikh Issa Qassim, as a police helicopter circled overhead. “The government made it up just like a movie.”

He was referring to video footage that Bahraini authorities have circulated showing the two policemen smashed by a vehicle that sped through a crowd of protesters, some of whom appeared to then trample and kick the fallen men.

Police kept a tight grip on roads leading to the village where the mosque is located, turning back many vehicles.

The rulings were only the third time in over 30 years that a death sentence had been given to a Bahraini citizen. …more