MANAMA, 1 February 2007 — A court in Bahrain yesterday sent two political activists to jail for possessing leaflets calling for a boycott of recent legislative elections, their lawyer said.
Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahlawi, a dentist, received a one-year jail sentence while insurance executive Hussein Al-Hibshi was sentenced to six months in prison, lawyer Mohammed Ahmad said.
“This ruling is unfair and illogical. It bypassed the defense argument... that the defendants were only exercising their right to free expression and that the material seized in their possession stressed the need to abide by peaceful means in expressing views,” Ahmad said.
“We have no choice but to appeal the ruling,” the lawyer added.
The pair were arrested last Nov. 16 after being found with leaflets that called for a boycott of the Nov. 25 legislative polls.
They were charged under articles of Bahrain’s penal code which “criminalize the dissemination and possession of materials that could damage the public interest.
The Shiite-led opposition won control of more than 40 percent of seats in Parliament, which however has to share its legislative powers with an upper chamber appointed by the king.
Meanwhile, remarks by MP Sameera Rajab, who reportedly said that Shiites were storing arms inside mosques and religious community centers, have provoked angry protests in the country, reports said yesterday.
Rajab’s comments prompted 150 Shiite mosques and community centers to place a newspaper advertisement earlier this week calling for an apology and warning that her comments could cause unrest.
Rajab, who was appointed last December to the 40-member Shoura Council, is a Baathist sympathizer and a columnist in the pan-Arab daily Akhbar Alkhaleej, which is vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq.
She claimed in a press statement that she was referring to the increasing sectarian tension in Iraq that could result from the execution of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussain, and not the presence of weapons in mosques in Bahrain.
Her comments however did little to defuse the anger.
Sheikh Isa Qasem, chairman of the highest Shiite religious board in Bahrain, the Olama Islamic Council (OIC), warned in a speech that importing sectarian tension from neighboring countries was un-Islamic.
“We are a reflection of the conflicts outside our borders, that is why we need to be aware of keeping these conflicts outside Bahrain,” he said.
Qasem added that Islamic countries faced a grave danger because there were some who sought to encourage the sectarian divide. He also said that there are two misconceptions among the Shiites and Sunnis in Bahrain that were fuelling the tension.
The first was that Shiites believed that the injustice they faced was because of the Sunnis.
The second misconception was that the Sunnis believed that Shiite demands to attain their rights were intended to target them and wage a war against them, he said.
Bahraini top officials had distanced themselves from sectarian tension and maintained throughout the past several months that they had no concerns about Shiite loyalty. Shiites account for more than 70 percent of the population in Bahrain.
