Number of jailed Diraz residents climbs to more than 160

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): There are currently 168 residents from Bahrain’s northwestern village of Diraz that are languishing in the kingdom’s detention centers.

That’s according to Ahrar Prisoners, a group tracking news about the detainees, which updated its stats on Wednesday.

The group reported that at least one of the detainees is a death row inmate while three others are women.

Diraz is considered a particularly vulnerable area in a country which already has the highest incarceration rate per capita in the Middle East.

Rights groups have accused Manama of subjecting the village to years of collective punishment for its support of Bahrain’s highest religious authority Sheikh Isa Qassim.