(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The lower house of parliament on Tuesday voted in favour of a constitutional amendment which drops a clause restricting military trials to offences committed by members of the army, police or other security branches.
Under the amendment to Article 105, which also needs approval in Bahrain's appointed upper house, civilians charged with "damaging public interest" or with terrorism -- broadly defined -- could now face trial in a military court.
Bahraini authorities have made sweeping use of counter-terrorism legislation in past weeks as they tighten their grip on political protests, which have entered their seventh year.
Between February 9 and February 19, police arrested 20 residents of Shiite villages, aged between 20 and 65 and including four women, in what the government described as a crackdown on "terror cells".
Authorities in the small but strategic archipelago state have accused Iran of meddling in the domestic affairs of Arab countries in the Persuab Gulf. Iran has consistently denied the charge.
International rights groups have accused Bahrain of criminalising dissent on the Shiite-majority country, ruled for two centuries by the Non-Bahraini Al-Khalifa dynasty.
Protests demanding a constitutional monarchy with an elected government came to the streets of Manama in mid-February 2011, centred around the famed Pearl roundabout which authorities have since razed.
Sporadic unrest has gripped the country since and access remains largely off-limits to foreign journalists.
Demonstrations intensified following last week's anniversary of the launch of the Manama protests which were crushed the following month with the support of forces from neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday night, residents of Nuwaidrat village, south of Manama, took to the streets to protest the death of Abdullah al-Ajouz, 22, during a police raid the previous day to arrest him, witnesses told AFP.
In tightening their grip, authorities have outlawed Bahrain's Shiite opposition and handed many of its leaders long jail terms, several on "terrorism" charges.
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