A Bahraini court Wednesday ordered the disbandment of a major liberal opposition group, amid a crackdown on dissent in the Gulf country.
The Administrative Court also ordered that the funds of the group, known as Waad, be confiscated.
The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Justice Ministry in March requesting the disbanding of Waad, which is Arabic for ‘promising,’ allegedly for inciting terrorism and promoting violence.
Waad, officially known as the National National Democratic Action Society, was licensed to operate as a political party in 2002.
Wednesday's verdict can be appealed.
The ruling drew immediate condemnation.
Waad's former secretary general, Radhi al-Mousawi, called the verdict an ‘abortion’ of political and economic reforms in the country.
Rights groups Amnesty International termed it ‘troubling.’ ‘Bahrain's dissolution of a major political opposition society is the latest troubling move in its blatant campaign to end all criticism of the government,’ the watchdog said in a statement.
‘By banning major political opposition groups, Bahrain is now heading towards total suppression of human rights,’ Lynn Maalouf, the director of research at Amnesty International's Beirut Regional Office, said.
Last year, a Bahraini court ordered the dissolution of the country's main opposition group, al-Wefaq, which played a major role in pro-democracy protests that took place in the kingdom in 2011.
