MANAMA (Dispatches) -- Bahraini authorities detained a 29-year-old man on Sunday for allegedly posting an audio clip online containing insults against religious figures, the Interior Ministry said, in an arrest rights groups cite as part of a broader crackdown on expression that has intensified since March.
The Anti-Cybercrime Directorate arrested the man over content it said constituted a legal violation capable of inciting sectarian strife and harming civil peace. The ministry urged social media users to refrain from publishing material insulting religious symbols or figures.
Bahrain’s Penal Code criminalizes insults against recognized religious sects under Articles 309 and 310. Earlier this year, lawmakers proposed amendments raising penalties for publicly insulting prophets or religious figures to up to five years in prison and fines of up to 20,000 dinars, with repeat offenders facing up to 10 years.
The Sunday detention is the latest in a campaign that human rights organizations say has detained more than 700 people since the outbreak of the terrorist U.S.-Israel war on Iran in late February, including children, and stripped citizenship from 69 individuals, 33 of them children, the youngest just 19 days old. 
In May, at least 37 Shia clerics were arrested, with 56 defendants including 46 clerics now facing a mass trial where defense lawyers have alleged torture and coerced confessions.
In March, 32-year-old Sayed Mohamed al-Mousawi died in custody after being forcibly disappeared the previous week, his body returned to his family bearing visible signs of torture. A UK parliamentary motion tabled this month condemned the “escalating campaign of repression” and called for targeted sanctions on Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Al-Khalifa.
Ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit last week, 32 rights organizations urged him to press King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the crackdown, warning that closer cooperation risked “emboldening the Bahraini authorities”.