27 Nov 2017

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP
Bahrain's top Shi'ite
cleric's health
deteriorates: activists
Shiite Muslim cleric has
deteriorated, activists said on
virtual house arrest following
a government decision to
revoke his citizenship.
respond to a request for a
comment on the reports about
Ayatollah Isa Qassims state of
health.
News about his condition has
stoked tension in Bahrain
as the Sunni Muslim-
led monarchy pursues a
crackdown on dissent by
majority Shiites that has
included closing down two
main political groupings and
banning activists from travel
or putting them on trial.
Activists said Qassim, who is
believed to be in his 70s, was
excreting blood.
Doctors who visited him
on Sunday at his home in
the village of Duraz, outside
the capital Manama, have
from a groin hernia requiring
emergency operation,
according to the London-
based Bahrain Institute
for Rights and Democracy
(BIRD).
Read more
Activists: Bahrain Shiite
cleric under house arrest
is ill
Activists said Monday that
a prominent Shiite cleric
who has been under house
his citizenship stripped is
seriously ill.
Doctors visited Sheikh Isa
Qassim on Sunday at his
home in Diraz, a Bahraini
town thats been surrounded
by police for over a year, they
said.
Sheikh Maytham al-Salman,
Associated Press on Monday
the 80-year-old Sheikh Isa is
in constant pain and requires
emergency surgery for a
hernia.
Responding to questions
from the AP, Fahad al-
Binali of Bahrains Embassy
in London said Sheikh Isa
received medical attention
from a doctor and that his
house arrest has no bearing
on his access to health care
neither does his citizenship
revocation.
However, Sheikh Isa could
be deported at any time
citizenship last June over
accusations that he fueled
extremism and laundered
money. His supporters deny
the allegations.
Read more
emergency operation to repair
a hernia.

movement "refused to attend It was unclear, however, if that

Bahrain dissident chief
boycotts Qatar-linked
trial
Bahrain's jailed Shiite
opposition leader Sheikh Ali
Salman refused to appear in
court Monday to face charges
of contacts with Qatar to
"overthrow the regime," the
attorney general said.
Salman and two members
of his banned Al-Wefaq
movement, Hassan Sultan
and Ali al-Aswad, are charged
with "communicating with
a foreign state to commit
acts hostile to the state of
Bahrain with the intent to
harm its political, economic
and national interests in order
to overthrow the regime,"
the hearing," which has been
deferred to Wednesday, the
attorney general said in a
statement.
Ali Salman has been behind
bars since 2014 serving a nine-
year sentence for allegedly
inciting hatred, while Sultan
and Aswad are on the run.
In August, Bahraini
authorities accused Salman
of having collaborated with
Qatar in 2011 to encourage
protesters to take to the streets.
Read more
will happen. His supporters
Health of Bahrains Top
say the deportation order
Shiite Cleric Worsens
under house arrest.
For months, the most
important cleric among
Bahrains Shiite majority has deported if he leaves his home,
stayed home, threatened with
said the Bahrain Institute
deportation by the kingdoms
for Rights and Democracy,
ruling Sunni minority under
a British-based organization
a 2016 order revoking his
that has been monitoring the
citizenship. events in Bahrain.
Simmering political tensions
Read more
in Bahrain over that order
escalated abruptly on Monday
with news that the cleric,
Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim,
is in the midst of a health
crisis.
Human rights activists
said Ayatollah Qassim, the
spiritual voice of Bahrains
Shiites, required urgent
hospitalization for an