Leader of Bahrain’s opposition party charged with spying

Ali Salman, secretary-general of the al-Wefaq party in Bahrian has been charged with “spying” by the public prosecutor which also suggested that the 2011 Arab Spring protests that gripped the country were instigated by a “foreign country”.

The opposition leader according to a statement on the state news agency BNA was charged alongside Hassan Sultan, a former member of parliament, of colluding with Qatar to carry out “hostile acts” in Bahrain and damage its “prestige”.

“The defendants had received financial support from Qatar for carrying out their activities aimed at harming the status and interests of the kingdom,” it said.

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According to Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, the director of advocacy, at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, “This new case tries to kill two birds with one stone” .

“On the one hand is Sheikh Ali Salman, who the UN has ruled is arbitrarily imprisoned for his political activity as the leader of the opposition, and on the other is Qatar, whose crisis with Bahrain is being used to further punish dissidents.

“These charges are a vindictive low for the Bahraini regime.”

Salman is already serving a nine-year sentence on charges that include attempting to overthrow the regime and inciting sectarian hatred and his wife Alya Radhi wrote on Twitter saying she had spoken with her husband by phone and he denied all charges.

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