The head of a human rights organization has urged the freedom of Bahrain’s prominent Shia cleric and opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman, describing the cleric’s detention as “absurd.”
Niccolò Talamanca, the secretary general of the human rights organization of No Peace Without Justice, in a video message, called for the release of Sheikh Ali Salman, describing the senior Shia cleric as a “well-known public figure.”
The head of the rights organization further said in the video that Salman’s public and private statements “have consistently been those of a message of nonviolence.”
The Bahraini regime arrested the opposition leader on December 28, 2014 on charges that included attempts to overthrow the incumbent regime and collaboration with foreign powers. He denies the charges.
The charges of incitement of violence against Salman “are clearly ill-founded and are a way to punish him without evidence,” Talamanca stated.
“The further detention of Sheikh Ali Salman stands as an indictment of the judicial system in Bahrain,” he said, adding, “If the charges are related to his public statements then his… detention for investigations is absurd and unnecessary.”
“How can there be a need to detain somebody pending investigations when the investigations are on public statements?” he asked.
The rights activist also said that the detention of the head of the opposition bloc al-Wefaq National Islamic Society “is done to punish him and an attempt to radicalize the society.”
He added that the top cleric is put in detention “to create a disruption within the society,” noting that Salman’s detention benefits “those within the administration in Bahrain who have chosen the path to violence and disturbance against the path of nonviolence which is the path chosen by Sheikh Ali Salman.”
Several international human rights organizations have slammed the Bahraini regime for detaining Sheikh Salman.
On June 5, Amnesty International dismissed as “groundless” the charges brought by the Bahraini judiciary against the prominent opposition leader, calling for his immediate release from prison.
IA/NN/HRB