Bahraini Opposition Voices Solidarity with Top Cleric
According to al-Laulau website, the movement, an opposition political organization in Bahrain founded in November 2005, underlined the importance of the statement ahead of the 8th anniversary of the Bahraini uprising, saying it would strengthen the resolve of the people for seeking the truth and justice.
It also stressed that the Bahraini nation will not give up its legitimate demands.
Sheikh Qassim, who is in Iraq after recently being discharged from a hospital in London, in the statement, released on Friday, said the Bahraini nation is unyielding in its pursuit of truth, justice and freedom.
The top cleric left London in December to make a pilgrimage to the holy sites in Iraq after about 50 years
In July, the Bahraini regime after months of foreign and domestic pressures, finally allowed Sheikh Qassim to travel to the United Kingdom for medical care.
In May 2017, a Bahraini court convicted Sheikh Qassim of illegal collection of funds and money laundering and sentenced him to one year in jail suspended for three years. It also ordered him to pay $265,266 in fines in a ruling which sparked widespread demonstrations across the country. The cleric has strongly rejected the allegations.
Bahraini authorities stripped the cleric of his citizenship on June 20, 2016. They later dissolved the Islamic Enlightenment Institution founded by him as well as the opposition al-Risala Islamic Association.
Sheikh Qassim, also the spiritual leader of Bahrain’s main Shia opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has been an outspoken critic of the Manama regime’s policies.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters have regularly held demonstrations in Bahrain ever since the popular uprising began in the country in mid-February 2011. The protesters are demanding that the Al Khalifa dynasty relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.
Manama has gone to great lengths to crack down on any sign of dissent. In March 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 gotten arrested in the Al Khalifa regime’s crackdown.
