7th March 2013

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

15 years for Bahraini Shiite in bomb case: report
A court in Bahrain on Wednesday condemned a protester accused of involvement in a bomb attack on police in a Shiite village to 15 years in prison, the ofcial BNA news agency reported. It quoted a judiciary source as saying that the High Criminal Court in Manama handed down the sentence to the unidentied defendant on charges that included "attempted murder of members of the security forces." The suspect was also charged with "possessing and making explosives for terrorist purposes" and "detonating an explosive device to intimidate and spread panic." Read More ndings and issued a news release.

Bahrain: Ministry Statements Unfounded

Statements by the Bahrain Interior Ministry and Social Development Ministry following a visit by Human Rights Watch representatives to Bahrain the week of February 24-28, 2013, make unfounded claims, Human Rights Watch said. On February 28, at the conclusion of the visit, Human Rights Watch held a news conference in Manama to report its

Bahrain: MEPs welcome national dialogue but say it must include the opposition
National dialogue among Bahrain's conicting parties is seen as hopeful by MEPs, despite concerns about ongoing violations of human rights. However, to be truly democratic, this dialogue must also include civil society and the political opposition, MEPs from the Foreign Affairs and Human

Rights committees told members of Bahrain parliament (Council of Representatives) on Thursday. "We see the recent political dialogue between communities in Bahrain as a step in the right direction. However it should involve wider range of Bahraini society, including the opposition, thereby forming solid foundations for the next elections", said Jose Ignacio Salafranca (EPP, ES), opening the exchange of views. Read More

On March 2, the Interior Ministry issued a statement, widely covered by Bahraini media, claiming that Human Rights Watch had misrepresented what ministry ofcials said in meetings earlier in the week, contravened privacy and security restrictions in publishing photos and videos of meetings with political prisoners, and ignored signicant reforms by the ministry in response to the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiryreport. Read More the Bahraini government is trying to spin this into more support than Iran is actually providing. The local Shia has long been in a rebellious mood and has kept the current uprising going (without much success) for two years now. For two years now Bahrains Sunni government has not been able to placate the Shia majority in their little kingdom. Read More

Bahrain Festers
Bahrain recently arrested six of its citizens and accused them of travelling to Iraq and Lebanon for terrorist training and being partly responsible for some of the recent terrorist attacks in the country. While Iran has always supported Shia in the region rebelling against Sunni rulers, many believe

Bahrain talks: Bipartisan panel to set agenda

Participants in Bahrains a national dialogue agreed to set up a committee to draw up the agenda of the next round of talks after progress was stalled by divergences over a push by the opposition to have a representative of the king at the table.

The decision to have an eightmember committee map out the next round of the talks was taken on Wednesday after the 27 participants failed to agree on the agenda for further discussions. We had put forward our proposal for a draft that includes both the principles, procedures and points to be taken up, said Jameel Kadhem, the spokesperson for the coalition of the opposition societies. Read More