MANAMA (Dispatches) –
Bahrain has released 30 prisoners conditionally, including 27 political prisoners, under legislation allowing electronic monitoring and house arrest instead.
Under the 2017 “alternative sentence” law, prisoners who have served at least half of their sentence in jail are allowed to complete it in other ways, including community service, rehabilitation courses and electronic surveillance.
According to exiled activist and director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, Sayed Alwadaei, many of the 27 political prisoners placed under house arrest this week had been arrested as juveniles. “Nevertheless, they will continue to face severe restrictions on their liberty. In any case, these rare releases remain overshadowed by the continued incarceration of hundreds of political prisoners in Bahrain.” He called on the Bahraini government to release all political detainees “unconditionally”.
Demonstrations in Bahrain have been held on a regular basis ever since a popular uprising began in mid-February 2011.
The participants demand that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.
Manama, however, has gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent.
The protesters are also against the Manama regime’s normalization of ties with the Zionist regime.
Bahrain’s main opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has denounced the normalization of relations as “a crime,” emphasizing that the Al Khalifah regime’s policies do not conform to the will of the Bahraini nation.
Al-Wefaq, in a statement released on Wednesday, said the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Manama and Tel Aviv regimes is resoundingly rejected by all strata of Bahrain’s society.
The opposition party underlined that the normalization agreement with the Zionist regime is in blatant contradiction to Bahrain’s history and Islamic identity.
“This is an illegal agreement and all Bahrainis view it as a crime,” al-Wefaq pointed out.
The statement reiterated that the entire Bahraini nation supports Palestine and its legitimate cause.