Senior Cleric Warns Bahraini Gov’t against Consequences of Mistreating Sheikh Qassim

Addressing a large and fervent congregation of the people on Tehran University campus on Friday, Hojjatoleslam Seddiqi said, “Ayatollah Sheikh Qassim is still under siege of Bahraini regime, but the Al Khalifa was forced to delay the verdict it issued against the senior cleric.”

He called on the Bahraini regime to come to itself and do something.

Bahraini officials stripped Sheikh Qassim, the spiritual leader of the country’s dissolved opposition group al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, of his citizenship on June 20, 2016.

They later dissolved the Islamic Enlightenment Institution, founded by the 77-year-old cleric, in addition to the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.

The Manama regime has pressed charges of “illegal fund collections, money laundering and helping terrorism” against Sheikh Qassim, who has strongly denied them.

Anti-regime protesters have held demonstrations on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom in mid-February 2011.

They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist Bahrain in its crackdown.

Scores of people have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or got arrested as a result of the Al Khalifah regime’s crackdown.