In Bahrain, two Shiite activists were executed. Some of it suggests that the ruling could be politically motivated. The Opposition has not let up. In the network, such as on the street, the Protest goes on.
For years, Shiite activists and state power in Bahrain to (archive image)
Death sentence for two terrorists convicted Bahraini citizens: in Front of a firing squad, Ahmed al-Malali and Ali al-Arab, 24 and 25 years old, died last Saturday. The court came to the conclusion that the two men Shia faith, had founded a terrorist organization. This is supposed to have attacked in January 2017, a prison South of the capital Manama. During the Robbery a security guard was killed, ten prisoners were able to escape. In addition, the group was made for two deadly attacks on police officers responsible.
Human Rights Watch: “torture is not on this case, limited”
Human Rights Watch condemned the execution, says Lama Fakih, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa the human rights organization. In the process, there had been no due process. There is evidence available, that the two young men tortured in detention and that their confessions had been obtained on the basis of coercion and abuse. “Nevertheless, we must see that the Bahraini government has committed to execution,” said Fakih in a DW interview. “Unfortunately, ill-treatment, torture and imprisonment, as well as the Lack of a fair trial are not to this case is limited.”
The Bahraini Embassy in Washington, defended the judgment. The two accused had had a fair trial. It’s fingers were also fingerprints on pieces of evidence have been found.
Parts of the Opposition, the execution is not impressed. In London, an activist climbed on the roof of the Bahraini Embassy to protest against the execution. In Bahrain itself, it came on the weekend protests. A protester was killed.
Tensions politically, not religiously motivated
Bahrain has a foreigner share of almost 55 percent. The rest of the population is almost two-thirds Shiite. The ruling house of Al-Khalifa belongs, however, to the Sunni minority. There is a close relationship to the Saudi Royal family has. When it came in the Wake of the uprisings of 2011 in Bahrain, protests against the government and the Al-Khalifa family, sent to Saudi Arabia and tanks to crush the rebellion. In the result, hundreds of opposition members have been arrested, many have been deprived of the nationality.
The protests came primarily from the Shiites, and the Sunnis at a disadvantage. They complain of discrimination in access to work and the housing market. Jobs in the Public service are hardly accessible. In Bahrain, not a religious, but a political conflict takes place, said in February 2018, five years imprisonment, sentenced the Shiite human rights activist Nabeel Rajab.
The court had found Rajab at the time, among other things, “insulting a national institution” for the guilty. The government attempts to play the religious card to secure the support of the Sunnis, thus, Rajab, 2012, in the DW-Interview. “But actually it comes to political issues: democracy, justice, equality and freedom. The people want democracy, they want a powerful Parliament and an elected government.”
Global Protest: a protester on the roof of the Bahraini Embassy in London
Tensions with foreign policy as a signal?
The conflict between the Royal family and the Opposition is up to today. For the government to apply parts of the Shia Opposition as “terrorists” trying to destabilize the fragile relationship between the ruling Sunni minority and the Shiite majority, says Sebastian Sons, an expert on the Arab Peninsula at the Bonn-based think tank CARPO.
The clashes but also a foreign political nature, as Sons in the DW-interview. “In times of increasing regional tensions with Iran, Bahrain wants to signal its closest allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), that several members of the local Shiite minority to be perceived as “agents of Iran”.”
An independent judiciary?
Bahrain is a small state. The area of the country is just over 750 square kilometers. Including the labour migrants live in the country, nearly 1.5 million people. From the mighty Iran only through the Persian Gulf is the Bahrain to Saudi Arabia as a powerful ally afford to lose.
How far its influence on the domestic policy or even the justice of the country go, is difficult to predict, says Sebastian Sons. “Bahrain is heavily dependent on the support of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates in terms of economic stability, security, and military support. Therefore, the executions are seen as part of a broader anti-Iranian approach, the both countries are pursuing.”
In times of increasing escalations between Saudi Arabia and the UAE on the one hand and Iran on the other hand, apportioning blame to a third party, such as the Shiites had become an important part of the nationalist Propaganda of the Arab States of the Gulf, as Sons.
Due to the criticism: Bahrain’s king Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa
Protests continue
This strategy follows quite apparently, the government in Bahrain. These have taken a number of steps to repress manifestations of Opposition to the freedom of the media, to restrict and to hamper opposition parties as to their work, says Lama Fakih.
It is unclear whether the government of the protests is in this way, Lord. The reactions of the Opposition to the execution, does not indicate that it is willing to let themselves be discouraged.