- MANAMA: Bahrain expanded the crackdown on the opposition, detaining on Wednesday the country’s most prominent blogger and supporter of pro-reform protests, his family and a social media editor said.
Hundreds of opposition activists and leaders have been detained since emergency rule was declared two weeks ago to help quell a month of protests demanding greater political freedoms.
Amira Al-Hussaini, a Middle East and North Africa editor at Global Voices Online said police took the 50-year-old blogger, Mahmoud Al-Youssef, into custody early Wednesday.
Al-Youssef has for years criticized the government for curbing freedom of expression, Al-Hussaini said. He has supported protests and advocated political reform through dialogue between the government and the opposition.
“He is the godfather of the Bahraini blogging community,” Al-Hussaini said of Al-Youssef who has been writing a blog in English.
The arrest comes a day after Bahrain’s Parliament accepted the resignations of 11 lawmakers from the opposition in a sign that the political crisis is deepening in the kingdom.
The country's main opposition leader meanwhile urged Iran to keep out of the Arab country's internal affairs, after government charges that Tehran had orchestrated month-long protests.
Sheikh Ali Salem also warned against Bahrain being used for a proxy war between rival regional powers.