MANAMA, 22 September 2006 — Bahrain’s King Sheikh Hamad on Wednesday night pardoned and issued orders to release demonstrators arrested following clashes at the Bahrain International Airport last year.
Scores of protesters, who took part in an unauthorized march that erupted into a riot on Dec. 25, 2005, were arrested after clashes with Bahraini police. The people were protesting after the authorities briefly detained Sheikh Mohammed Sanad, a 46-year-old Bahraini religious leader, for questioning soon after his arrival from Qom in Iran.
More than 40 people are expected to benefit from the pardon, including some 22 who were sentenced in February to one or two years in jail for taking part in the clashes.
Some 150 supporters of Sanad who had gathered at the airport marched to the arrival hall demanding that their leader be released triggering clashes with riot police who had been deployed there.
The opposition maintained that the arrests and sentences had been politically motivated, while police said that the arrests came as a result of people breaking the law.
A spokesman for the families of the detainees said that they expected some 44 people to be released following the pardon. “It is still not clear when they will be released, we understand that the Ministry of Interior is finalizing the paper work to release them,” he said, adding, “We want to emphasize that they are innocent and should not have been arrested in the first place.”
