Bahrain puts opposition leaders, activists on trial

08 May 2011, Sunday / REUTERS/AP, MANAMA

Bahrain put 21 mostly Shiite activists, including a prominent hard-line dissident, on trial on Sunday, charged with trying to topple the government during weeks of protests in February and March. Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled island kingdom, cracked down on the protests demanding greater political freedoms, a constitutional monarchy and an end to sectarian discrimination.

The crackdown, in which neighboring Sunni-led Gulf states sent troops to back Bahrain’s forces, has boosted regional tension with Iran, which Bahrain accuses of manipulating its Shiite co-religionists to expand its influence. Those on trial on Sunday face a hybrid civilian-military court where military prosecutors try the case before a panel of one military and two civilian judges.

Those on trial include Shiite dissident Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the opposition group Haq who has called for the overthrow of the Sunni al-Khalifa monarchy, and Ebrahim Shareef, the Sunni leader of the secular Waad group that has called for a constitutional monarchy but has not joined those seeking to oust the king. Bahrain’s state news agency said the defendants were accused of involvement in an “attempt to overthrow the government by force and in liaison with a terrorist organization working for a foreign country.”

Rights groups said the defendants should be tried before civil courts, saying the military courts did not allow the accused to defend themselves properly. “Lawyers were called less than 24 hours before the trial started. They did not have time to prepare,” Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights told Reuters. State media said the men were accused of organizing and managing a terrorist group bent on toppling the government and corresponding with a terrorist group abroad working for a foreign country against Bahrain, among other charges.

Source: Sunday's Zaman.
Link: http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=243239.