6th/ 7th November 2012

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Bahrain revokes nationality of 31 over national security
The Bahraini government, facing protracted unrest by its Shi'ite Muslim majority, has revoked the nationality of 31 men for damaging national security, the state news agency BNA reported on Wednesday. The men include Londonbased dissidents Saeed alShehabi and Ali Mushaima, the son of jailed opposition leader Hassan Mushaima, as well as clerics, human rights lawyers and activists, according to Mohammed alMascati, head of the Bahrain Youth Centre for Human Rights. In April, Ali Mushaima scaled the roof of Bahrain's embassy in London to publicize opposition demands for democratic change. Read More leaders, such as Saeed Shehabi who lives in exile in London, and Jalal and Jawad Fairooz, two former parliamentarians from the main Shia opposition party, Al-Wefaq. The government said its decision was in line with the citizenship law that allows it to reconsider nationality if a Bahraini damages national security. The decision can be appealed. It is unclear whether those in Bahrain will be expelled. Read More according to a law that "permits the re-evaluation of nationality when a holder of the Bahraini citizenship causes damage to state security." The list of those stripped of their citizenship includes Jawad Fairouz, whom CNN identies as a former member of Bahrain's Parliament from Shiite opposition movement, alWefaq. Read More other rights groups, among them Amnesty International.

HRW urges Bahrain to restore citizenship to activists

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Bahrain to retract its decision to revoke the citizenship of 31 Shiites for having "undermined state security", describing the move as a violation of basic rights. The government's action, announced on Wednesday, has also been condemned by Bahrain's opposition as well by

"Bahraini authorities should rescind their announced decision to strip citizenship from 31 people for allegedly damaging the country's security," New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "The order was imposed without due process of law and will leave the majority of the people affected stateless," it said. Read More Law permitted the "reevaluation of nationality".

Bahrain revokes citizenship of activists

Bahrain has revoked the nationality of 31 activists, citing them as a threat to national security as the Gulf states crackdown on dissent intensies. The ofcial news agency published a list of those whose nationality had been revoked, including political

Bahrain revokes 31 opposition activists' citizenship

Bahrain's government has revoked the citizenship of 31 opposition activists for "undermining state security". An interior ministry statement published by state media said Article 10 of the Citizenship

Those affected include Jawad and Jalal Fairuz, former MPs for the leading Shia movement, al-Wifaq, and Ali Mushaimaa, son of al-Haq's imprisoned leader. Last week, the government banned all public gatherings and rallies. Read More centre of a confrontation with the Sunni-led government. The brothers are visiting the UK and may now be forced to make high-prole asylum applications that will be awkward for the relationship between the British and Bahraini governments. Others include the Londonbased dissidents Saeed alShehabi and Ali Mushaima, the son of the jailed opposition leader Hassan Mushaima. In April, Ali Mushaima climbed onto the roof of Bahrain's embassy in London to publicise demands for democratic change. Read More

Bahrain revokes 31 activists' nationalities

Bahrain has extended a crackdown on the opposition by revoking the nationality of 31 activists it says have damaged state security. The move, conrmed by the state news agency on Wednesday, is the latest in a series designed to contain protests in the Gulf island state. Two of the activists, Jalal and Jawad Fairooz, are former MPs from al-Wefaq, the mainstream Shia opposition movement, which is at the

Bahrain leaves 31 stateless

The government in Bahrain announced it revoked the citizenship of 31 people whom ofcials said were considered national security threats. The government, through its ofcial Bahrain News Agency, said it reserved the right to revoke citizenship

Bahrain Strips Activists Of Citizenship

Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of 31 activists, intensifying its crackdown on anti-government protests. The Bahraini government justied the action, claiming the dissidents had ties to Iran and were undermining state security by inciting social unrest. "They are all members of banned parties which work to topple the regime,Bahraini

Information Minister Samira Ibrahim bin Rajab told the BBC. They are members of the so-called Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain, which was established in Iran. They have connections with the Iranian Embassy and some work inside there." The monarchy has often accused Iran -- designated a state sponsor of terrorism by Bahrains ally the U.S. -- of supporting the political opposition and stoking unrest, though it has yet to provide any supporting evidence. Read More Fairuz, both ex-MPs who represented the major Shiite Al-Wefaq bloc, were listed in the report, which quoted an interior ministry statement. Among them was Ali Mashaima, son of prominent activist Hassan Mashaima who heads the radical Shiite opposition movement Haq and who is serving a life sentence for allegedly plotting against the monarchy. Read More

Bahrain: tensions rise, 31 citizenships revoked

Tensions are on the rise in Bahrain, where the government stripped 31 people of their citizenship for ''security reasons,'' Gulf News daily cited an interior ministry statement as saying on Wednesday, . On the list of 30 men and one woman to be stripped of their citizenship are human

rights activists Said Al Shehabi and Ali Mushaima, son of jailed opposition leader Hassan Mushaima; Jawad Fairouz and Jawal Fairouz, both former MPs for the Shiite opposition group Al-Wefaq; and several Shiite clerics. Bahrain, where a Sunni oil-rich monarchy rules over a majority Shiite population, experienced its own Arab Spring in February-March 2011, when security forces harshly repressed the uprising with the help of troops from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Read More Human Rights, issued a joint statement expressing their grave concern over the systematic targeting of prominent political activists, former members of parliament, clerics and others. They called on the United States, U.K., United Nations and others to put pressure on the Bahraini authorities to reverse the decision and allow freedom of expression, and also to immediately stop the systematic and widespread human-rights violations. Read More that the decision comes as those Bahrainis violated Clause 10 of the nationality law, which stipulates rights for the revocation of Bahraini nationality to ensure the state security. Among them, some got British political asylum years back, like Saeed Al Shahabi and Ali Mushaima. Mushaimas father, Hassan Mushaima, is serving a life sentence along with others for a foiled attempt to overthrow the regime in 2011. Read More

Bahrain revokes citizenships of 31 Shiite activists: state media

Bahraini authorities have revoked the citizenship of 31 Shiite activists, among them two former parliamentarians, for having "undermined state security," state news agency BNA reported on Wednesday. The names of the 31, including brothers Jawad and Jalal

Citizenship revoked: Key US ally Bahrain strips dissenters of their nationality

Bahrains government said Wednesday that it had revoked the citizenship of 31 Bahrainis, described by human rights activists as mostly former political detainees.

Bahrain revokes citizenship of dissidents

The Bahraini government, facing protracted unrest by its Shiite Muslim majority, has revoked the nationality of 31 men for damaging national security. They include London-based dissidents Saeed al-Shehabi

Two human rights groups, and Ali Mushaima, the son of the Bahrain Center for jailed opposition leader Hassan Human Rights and the Mushaima, as well as clerics, Bahrain Youth Society for human rights lawyers and activists, according to Mohammed al-Mascati, head of the Bahrain Youth Centre for Human Rights. In April, Ali Mushaima scaled the roof of Bahrains embassy in London to publicise opposition demands for democratic change. Read More

Bahrain revokes nationality of 31 Bahraini Shiites

Bahrain revoked the nationality of 31 Bahraini Shiites, including a woman and two former members of parliament, on Wednesday for security reasons, according to a statement by the interior ministry. The ministry called upon those related to seek court assistance, and pointed out

Bahrain revokes citizenship of 31 nationals

Bahraini authorities on Wednesday revoked the nationality of 31 citizens in connections with security disturbances the country has been facing since last year. The list released by the Interior Ministry included two former members of parliament. The ministry report said the decision could be challenged

in court. The revocations were based on Article 10 of the Nationality Law which permits the withdrawal of nationality of any Bahraini citizen who causes damage to state security. The two former MPs are brothers Jawad and Jalal Fairouz, who are leading gures in Al Wefaq National Islamic Society. The only woman in the list is Marriam Al Sayed Redha. The list also has some Bahrainis who have taken asylum in the United Kingdom. Read More

Bahrain revokes citizenship from 31 people

Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of 31 people under a security-related clause. The interior ministry said that it referred to Clause C of Article 10 of the Citizenship Law that allows the revocation of Bahraini citizenship when its holder undermines state security.

The interior minister will oversee the measures required to implement the decision taken in line with Bahrains commitment to preserving national security and in accordance with international covenants, the statement said. The affected have the right to appeal the decision before a court of law, the ministry said late on Tuesday. Read More

nationality revoked because they had caused damage to state security.

process of law and will leave the majority of the people affected stateless.

Bahrain: Dont Arbitrarily Revoke Citizenship

Bahraini authorities should rescind their announced decision to strip citizenship from 31 people for allegedly damaging the countrys security. The people affected included opposition political activists, lawyers, and rights activists. The order was imposed without due

On November 6, 2012, the Interior Ministry issued a statement revoking the citizenship of the 31 people under article 10(3) of theBahraini Citizenship Act of 1963 because they were damaging the security of the state. Article 10 provides that the ruler has the authority to revoke a persons citizenship. Read More

Bahraini opposition figures stripped of nationality in 'frightening and chilling' development

The Bahraini authorities today stripped 31 opposition gures of their Bahraini nationality in a move described by Amnesty International as frightening and chilling.

The ruling means that those members of the group who only held Bahraini nationality are now stateless. Philip Luther, Amnesty Internationals director for the Middle East and North Africa said: The authorities have provided the vaguest of reasons for the deprivation of nationality, which appears to have been taken on the basis of the victims political views. Read More Information Minister Samira Ibrahim bin Rajib said the bombings bore the "hallmarks" of Hezbollah, the ofcial Bahrain News Agency reported Tuesday. Rajib also rejected claims by opposition ofcials the government planted the bombs to justify a state of emergency. Read More

A Ministry of Interior statement indicated that the group, including politicians, activists and religious gures, had their

Bahrain arrests 4 over deadly bombings

Bahraini police have arrested four suspects in connection with bombings that killed two Asian expatriates in the capital Manama, the ofcial BNA news agency reported on Tuesday. The news agency did not elaborate on when or how the arrests were made.

"An investigation is under way to uncover the circumstances surrounding these terrorist crimes and identify the rest of the 4 arrested in deadly criminals and arrest them," Bahrain bombing BNA quoted public security chief Major-General Tariq al- Police arrested four people Hassan as saying. suspected in deadly bombings this week, saying the militant The report came hours after Hezbollah may have played a King Hamad ordered "the role. swift arrest of the terrorists who carried out the recent terrorist acts in Bahrain." Read More

Bahrain: Four Arrested in Bombings; Officials Hint at Hezbollah Role

The authorities said Tuesday that four suspects had been arrested in connection with deadly bombings the day before, and that the Shiite militant group Hezbollah may have played a role. The blasts were a major escalation of the violence that has roiled Bahrain, a tiny Persian Gulf state ruled

by a Sunni monarchy, because of a 21-month-old uprising by the Shiite majority. Hundreds of antigovernment demonstrators clashed with the police on Tuesday in the village of Sanabis, west of Manama, the capital. Bahrains chief of public security, Maj. Gen. Tariq alHassan, said that the bombing suspects, who were not identied, had been taken into custody and that further arrests were possible. Read More times of political uncertainty, bloodshed remains the lowest common denominator. There can be no excuse for the bombing campaign, and the culprits are still unknown, but most commentators have linked the attacks to the country's political turmoil since protests began at the Pearl Roundabout last year. Police have been the targets of several attacks, and since February 2011 more than 50 people have been killed. But Monday's strikes were an anomaly because they targeted civilians. Read More the mostly peaceful uprising could take a turn toward violence.

their press ofce on Wednesday. Bahraini intelligence was behind these explosions, and used them as an excuse to attack the peaceful opposition. A series of explosions in the Bahraini capital Manama on Monday killed two Asian expatriates and wounded a third. Read More

Hezbollah denies involvement in Bahrain explosions

Hezbollah denied Bahrains accusations that the Shiite group was involved in the recent terrorist attacks in Manama. We deplore any reference [to our involvement], Hezbollah said in a statement issued by

The Interior Ministry described the blasts as terrorist acts.

Bahrain attacks signal worsening national crisis

One bomb, placed outside a cinema in Manama, killed a street cleaner doing his job early on Monday morning. A second blast took the life of another unlucky labourer. Three other explosions rattled through the capital within hours of each other. Those ve coordinated explosions - undoubtedly acts of terrorism - show a worrying new development in Bahrain's political crisis. Moreover, these violent reminders tell us that in

Two Asians killed in Bahrain blasts

Two Asian cleaners were killed while the other was seriously injured as ve bombs exploded in Manama on Monday morning. The spokesperson of Manama Police District said that all were homemade bombs.

The spokesman said that the initial investigation has revealed that a bomb exploded when one of the deceased men kicked a package that blew up in Qudaibiya. He died at the scene. Read More

bloodshed that threatens to tip the island kingdom into chaos.

Bahrain Burning
Violence is once again rearing its ugly head in Bahrain. The coordinated detonation of ve home-made explosive devices in the capital of Manama on Nov. 5, resulting in the death of two people and the maiming of another, was not some crude attempt to celebrate Guy Fawkes night, but an escalation of

The Inconvenient Revolution

The Arab Spring is still going on in the tiny Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. The protests began in February 2011 and have continued ever since despite harsh government reprisals. The news that ve home-made bombs exploded in the capital of Manama earlier this week, killing two and severely wounding another, has observers fearing that

Maryam Al-Khawaja is one of the country's leading activists, acting president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) and head of the international ofce of the Gulf Center for Human Rights' (GCHR). Based in Copenhagen, she comes from one of the most prominent dissident Bahraini families. "The last time I cried was when I read the report on how they tortured my father," said Al-Khawaja. Read More

The attack appears to be an amateurish attempt to cause terror and mayhem, achieving no result other than killing innocent expatriate labourers. The quality of the explosive devices was poor, suggesting that the attacks were the work of unsophisticated actors working with little institutional support. Read More

Bahrain: Free Human Rights Defender, Says Hrw

Bahraini authorities should immediately release the human rights activist Sayed Yusuf al-Muhafadha and drop all illegal gathering charges against him, say human rights organization. On October 30, 2012, the government issued an indenite ban on public protests. Security forces arrested alMuhafadha, acting vice president of the Bahrain

Center for Human Rights (BCHR), in al-Diraz, west of Manama, on November 2. AlMuhafadha was taken into custody after he tried to photograph an injured protester at a protest against the ban. Earlier in the day he had tweeted photos of security forces attacking protesters with teargas in the village of Bilad al-Qadeem, the Washington Post reported. The day after he was arrested, the public prosecutor decided to hold him in detention for a week pending investigation on charges of illegal gathering of more than ve people. Read More

Bahrain blasts underscore tensions over lack of political reform (+video)

Less than a week after Bahrain's government banned protests, ve bombs detonated across the capital Monday, intensifying concern about an escalation in violence amid frustrations over the pace of political reform. Protests have been an ongoing feature of life in Bahrain over the past 21 months. But the bombings, which killed two people and seriously injured a third,

represented a rare attack on civilians, and spurred ngerpointing between activists and the Sunni government. Protesters, who are predominately Shiite, have been calling for more jobs, political representation, educational opportunities, and better housing. While the nation is governed by Sunnis, the population is 70 percent Shiite, and Shiite youth activists in Bahrain many demanding the downfall of the monarchy have grown more radical in the past year, and some have used homemade weapons, including bombs, to attack police, according to The Wall Street Journal. Read More In Bahrain last month, police broke up a protest using tear gas and stun grenades. Demonstrations and rallies have since been banned. Watch Here

Bahrain police breakup protest