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12 Dec 2016

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP


Bahrain Court Upholds
9-Year Prison Term for
Opposition Chief
A Bahraini court has upheld
a nine-year prison term
imposed on the country's
most prominent opposition
leader, Shi'ite cleric Sheikh
Ali Salman, local media
reported on Monday.
Salman, who leads the now
closed al-Wefaq Islamic
Society, was granted a retrial
for inciting unrest "crimes
of promoting change to the
political system by force"
in October for unspecified
reasons.

An administrative court
ordered Wefaq itself closed
in June and Bahrain's
foremost Shi'ite cleric Sheikh
Isa Qassim was convicted
of money-laundering and
stripped of his citizenship.

The independent Bahraini


newspaper al-Wasat said
the appeals court, in a new
ruling after the court of
cassation ordered a retrial,
reported the verdict in
Salman's appeal.
Amnesty
International
condemned the ruling as
"shocking".

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political group.
Amnesty's Mideast Deputy
Director of Campaigns
Samah Hadid says the ruling
shows "Bahrain's flagrant
disregard for the right to
freedom of expression."

Human
rights
groups
are sharply criticizing a
Bahraini appeal court's
ruling upholding a nineyear prison sentence against
the country's leading Shiite
opposition figure.
Amnesty
International
and the Bahrain Institute
for Rights and Democracy
were among the groups
condemning
Monday's
verdict against Sheikh Ali
Salman. He is secretarygeneral
of
Al-Wefaq,
Bahrain's largest Shiite

Bahrain Upholds Jail


Sentence for Opposition
Chief
Bahrain's appeals court on
Monday upheld a nineyear jail sentence against
opposition chief Sheikh Ali
Salman, a judicial source
said, the latest move in a
crackdown on the Shiite
majority.
The
sentence
against
Salman, for inciting hatred
and calling for regime
change by force, had been
overturned by the court of
cassation in October.
Salman, 51, is considered
a moderate who has
pushed for a constitutional

He has been in custody since


his conviction last June.

Rights groups blast


sentence against Bahrain
Shiite activist

monarchy
in
Bahrain,
unlike hardline groups who
have demanded the toppling
of the Sunni Al-Khalifa
dynasty.

Salman
was
initially
sentenced to four years
on charges that included
incitement and insulting
the
Interior
Ministry,
prompting appeals by his
lawyers and prosecutors. In
May his sentence was raised
to nine years on appeal, a
ruling upheld Monday.
Salman was a central figure
in the 2011 Arab Springinspired uprising against the
Sunni-led government.

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His arrest in December


2014, in connection with
speeches he had given,
sparked protests in Shiitemajority Bahrain.
Human Rights Watch said
he was arrested and charged
"despite the fact Salman
renounced violence and
called for peaceful protest in
his speeches".
The charismatic Shiite cleric
was sentenced in July 2015
to four years in jail after
being convicted of inciting
hatred in the Gulf kingdom.

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