The Bahraini Court of Cassation upholds the withdrawal of citizenship from Sheikh Isa Qassim

On Monday, the Bahraini Court of Cassation upheld the ruling to revoke the citizenship of the prominent Shiite cleric and leading figure in the opposition, Ayatollah Isa Qassim, and imprison him for a year with a suspended sentence, according to a judicial source. Ayatollah Qassim is in his late seventies, and has been under de facto house arrest in Diraz, a suburb of Manama, since an initial ruling was issued in 2016 to revoke his Bahraini citizenship after he was convicted on charges that include “serving foreign interests.” Qasim led opposition demonstrations in 2011 and is known for his harsh criticism of the regime in Bahrain. On January 8, the cleric underwent surgery, days after he was transferred to the hospital, amid controversy between his family and the authorities regarding his health care. In a second case, the judicial source reported that the Court of Cassation also upheld the death sentence of a Shiite for the killing of a policeman in February 2013. Bahrain has been witnessing intermittent unrest since the suppression of a protest movement in February 2011 in the midst of the “Arab Spring” events. Dozens of Bahraini dissidents were referred to the judiciary and were issued harsh prison sentences for calling for the overthrow of the government. In most cases, the sentences were accompanied by the revocation of the citizenship of the convicts.