AhlulBayt News Agency - A Bahraini court will hand down its verdict next week in the government's bid to dissolve the main opposition group Al-Wefaq, accused for alleged terrorism-related activities, a judicial source said Monday.
The date of July 17 was set as the court convened in the absence of the defence team which walked out last month in protest at the government's push to accelerate the process.
The United States has called on Bahrain to reconsider the move to dissolve Al-Wefaq, which it has called "alarming".
Al-Wefaq was the largest bloc in parliament before its lawmakers resigned in protest at the crushing of 2011 protests calling for an elected government in the kingdom.
The justice ministry claimed the Shiite bloc is providing a haven for "terrorism, radicalisation and violence" and opening the way for "foreign interference" in the kingdom's affairs.
Tiny but strategic Bahrain lies just across the Gulf from Iran and is the home base of the US Fifth Fleet.
In May, an appeals court more than doubled a four-year prison sentence handed down against Al-Wefaq leader Ali Salman on charges of Freedom of Speech.
Meanwhile, authorities on Monday freed Sunni opposition leader Ibrahim Sharif after he served a one-year jail term for alleged anti-regime incitement.
Sharif, who headed the secular Waed party, already served four years of a five-year sentence over the 2011 protests before being released under a royal amnesty in June last year.
But he was re-arrested the following month after he addressed a memorial service for one of those martyred during the suppression of the demonstrations in February-March 2011.
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source : Daily Mail
Tuesday
12 July 2016
8:25:49 AM
765421
A Bahraini court will hand down its verdict next week in the government's bid to dissolve the main opposition group Al-Wefaq, accused for alleged terrorism-related activities, a judicial source said Monday.