{"id":10613,"date":"2016-12-21T14:09:28","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T14:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=10613"},"modified":"2016-12-21T14:10:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T14:10:54","slug":"bahraini-court-summons-top-cleric-sheikh-isa-qassim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/bahraini-court-summons-top-cleric-sheikh-isa-qassim\/","title":{"rendered":"Bahraini court summons top cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Regime forces in Bahrain have handed a warrant to prominent cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim to appear in court, after clashing with his supporters.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bahraini police forces used tear gas against Sheikh Qassim\u2019s supporters around his residence in the western Diraz region of the country in a brutal effort to gain access to the doorway of the house on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The supporters of the cleric, who have been camping out at the area as a protective measure for his safety, called on more people from the local population to join them following the police raid.<\/p>\n<p>The sit-in protest outside the cleric\u2019s home entered its 185th day on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 618px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-10613-1\" width=\"618\" height=\"348\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/bahrain-2.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/bahrain-2.mp4\">http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/bahrain-2.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>The sit-in protest began on June 20, when Bahraini authorities stripped the 79-year-old cleric of his citizenship, less than a week after suspending the country\u2019s main opposition party, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, and dissolving the Islamic Enlightenment Institution \u2014 founded by the senior cleric \u2014 and another opposition Islamic association.<\/p>\n<p>Following the provocation against the cleric, a senior commander of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) publicly declared that the sanctuary of the top cleric was a red line, the violation of which would set fire to Bahrain and the entire region.<\/p>\n<p>Major General Qassem Soleimani, who commands the IRGC\u2019s Quds Force, said in June that overstepping the red line would leave the people of Bahrain with no other choice but armed resistance.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10616\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10616\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10616 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/b9e357cc-da2c-43f1-a1ec-d09193be7891.jpg\" alt=\"An image that appeared on social media shows Bahrainis around Sheikh Isa Qassim\u2019s home as regime forces attack them on December 21, 2016.\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/b9e357cc-da2c-43f1-a1ec-d09193be7891.jpg 650w, https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/b9e357cc-da2c-43f1-a1ec-d09193be7891-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10616\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image that appeared on social media shows Bahrainis around Sheikh Isa Qassim\u2019s home as regime forces attack them on December 21, 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"item-body\">\n<div class=\"item-text\">\n<p>Bahrain\u2019s Interior Ministry had alleged in a statement that Sheikh Qassim actively sought the \u201ccreation of a sectarian environment\u201d through his connections with \u201cforeign powers,\u201d charges that were widely understood as regime attempts to silence the dissident cleric. He has denied the charges.<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has seen a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February 2011. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded or detained in a crackdown that Manama has been carrying out to crack down on dissent since then.<\/p>\n<p>Soon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed forces to Bahrain to assist the Manama regime\u2019s crackdown on the peaceful protests.<\/p>\n<p>Human rights groups have frequently censured the Al Khalifah regime for rampant human rights abuses against the opposition and anti-regime demonstrators.<\/p>\n<p>The regime has imprisoned other senior clerics in the past. Sheikh Ali Salman, one such figure, has been sentenced to nine years in jail in a sham trial.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10618\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10618\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10618\" src=\"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/f5e49004-6232-431e-bba4-e163c7da7fce.jpg\" alt=\"The image, taken from social media, shows Bahraini police forces deploying around Sheikh Isa Qassim\u2019s residence in Diraz, on December 21, 2016.\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/f5e49004-6232-431e-bba4-e163c7da7fce.jpg 650w, https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/f5e49004-6232-431e-bba4-e163c7da7fce-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10618\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The image, taken from social media, shows Bahraini police forces deploying around Sheikh Isa Qassim\u2019s residence in Diraz, on December 21, 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Also on Wednesday, UK-based rights group Amnesty International (AI) issued a statement demanding that the Bahraini regime \u201chalt its relentless crackdown on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly\u201d across the country.<\/p>\n<p>It further underlined that, over the past two months, regime forces had banned at least 40 human rights defenders and political activists in the country from traveling abroad while interrogating and filing charges against them.<\/p>\n<p>Amnesty said it issued the statement after Bahraini authorities \u201cnotably intensified their clampdown on freedoms\u201d across the Persian Gulf country since June 2016, when the regime announced its bid to strip away the citizenship of Sheikh Qassim.<\/p>\n<p>The international rights group urged Bahraini officials to \u201crelease all prisoners of conscience\u201d \u2014 including rights activist Nabeel Rajab and Sheikh Salman \u2014 \u201cimmediately and unconditionally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.presstv.ir\/Detail\/2016\/12\/21\/500819\/Bahrain-Sheikh-Isa-Qassim-Diraz-court-summon\" target=\"_blank\">Press TV<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Regime forces in Bahrain have handed a warrant to prominent cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim to appear in court, after clashing with his supporters. Bahraini police forces used tear gas against Sheikh Qassim\u2019s supporters around his residence in the western Diraz region of the country in a brutal effort to gain access to the doorway of &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[54,1364,1346,1361,124,1362,1363,22,183],"class_list":["post-10613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-world-news","tag-bahrain-2","tag-diraz","tag-khalifa","tag-qassem-suleimani","tag-saudi","tag-shadow-commander","tag-shaykh-isa-qassem","tag-takfiri","tag-zionist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10613"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10620,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10613\/revisions\/10620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}