TEHRAN (Press TV) -- Iran’s Assembly of Experts on Friday strongly condemned the Bahraini regime’s recent raid on the residence of the spiritual leader of the country’s Shia majority.
The assembly said in a statement that the inhumane treatment of Sheikh Isa Qassim by the Bahraini Al Khalifa regime with the help of the Saudi regime would "create a tide and a storm that will not subside except with the toppling of the oppressive Al Khalifah system.”
Bahraini forces raided the northwestern village of Diraz on Tuesday, killing five people who were holding a sit-in as they stormed Qassim’s house.
Sheikh Qassim faces expulsion from Bahrain after authorities revoked his citizenship last year. Ever since, the public has been staging day-to-day sit-ins in front of his house in Diraz, and the government has placed the village under a siege.
The measure was taken against him over his support for the nation’s uprising against the regime, which began in 2011.
Protests escalated on Monday after a court convicted the cleric of what it said were the illegal collection of funds and money laundering and sentenced him to one year in jail suspended for three years.
Local police have asked survivors to forgo a funeral ceremony for the victims.