Bahrain files lawsuit to close Shia clerics council

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Bahraini authorities have filed a lawsuit to close a Shia clerics’ council, accusing it of operating illegally and being involved in politics, the justice ministry said yesterday. The ministry said it wanted the office of the Olamaa Islamic Council to be closed and its assets liquidated for “functioning outside the law”. The council, which is led by prominent cleric Sheikh Issa Qassem, “violates the constitution and the laws of the kingdom”, the ministry claimed, accusing its members of “using it to practise politics under a confessional cover”.The council also “adopted the call for the so-called revolution”, the ministry claimed, referring to the Shia-led protests against the government.  Home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet and strategically situated across the Persian Gulf from Iran, Bahrain still sees demonstrations on almost daily basis. According to the International Federation for Human Rights, around 113 people have been killed in Bahrain since the violence first broke out in 2011./129