Reuters
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Bahrain’s main Shia Muslim opposition group has launched a legal challenge against the government’s decision to suspend its activities, the group said yesterday.
Bahrain’s justice ministry asked a court on Sunday to suspend the activities of the Al Wefaq National Islamic Society for three months so the group could “correct its legal status”, state news agency BNA reported.
The ministry said it filed the lawsuit after Al Wefaq insisted “on breaking the law and its own statute as well as its failure to amend violations related to its illegal general assemblies and the consequent invalidity of all its decisions”, the agency reported, quoting a statement.
In a letter to the justice ministry, Wefaq said its structure complied with the kingdom’s laws.
“Wefaq also mentioned that it has not received any official notification of the issue, in which the ministry claims that four of its general assemblies violated the law,” it said in a statement.
Sectarian tensions remain in Bahrain three years after a popular uprising by Shias was quashed.
Bahrain’s opposition parties say they will boycott parliamentary elections due to take place this year unless the government guarantees the vote will reflect the will of the people.
Talks between the government and opposition have failed to end the political standoff. Many Shias complain of political and economic discrimination, a charge the authorities deny.
The justice ministry’s move came a little over a week after Sheikh Ali Salman, Al Wefaq’s secretary general, and his political assistant, Khalil al-Marzouq, were charged with holding an illegal meeting with a US diplomat.
Tom Malinowski, US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour was expelled from Bahrain in June, an incident that has opened a rift between Washington and one of its main regional allies.
Marzouq had been cleared of terrorism charges in June, raising hopes that suspended reconciliation talks between the government and the opposition could get back on track.
Al Wefaq, which says it advocates non-violent activism, had boycotted talks with the government after Marzouq’s arrest in September.
A meeting between Bahrain’s crown prince and opposition leaders in January may have pulled the discussions back from the brink of collapse but mutual mistrust runs deep.
Little progress has been made since then and the opposition has said talks are “frozen”.
