Bahraini authorities refuse to return Shia cleric's travel documents

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Bahraini Shiite cleric Sayed Majeed Al Meshaal is reportedly being deprived of his freedom to travel as authorities in Manama refuse to return his passport.

Local rights campaigner Ebtisam al-Saegh is alleging that the latest restrictions against the cleric are unlawful.

Sayed Al Meshaal had his passport confiscated after returning from a one-day trip to Saudi Arabia in May of this year.

Since then, a series of unusual bureaucratic hurdles have made it impossible for the cleric to reclaim his travel documents.

Sayed Al Meshaal spent nearly a month in detention in February of this year after being accused of ‘inciting hatred against the regime’.

That arrest came a mere 48 hours following Sayed Al Meshaal’s completion of a two-and-a-half year prison term over a separate set of charges.

In July 2016, he was jailed for participating in a round-the-clock vigil outside the home of Bahrain’s highest religious authority, Sheikh Isa Qassim.

Sayed Al Meshaal once chaired the now-dissolved Islamic Scholars Council, which was one of Bahrain’s leading Shiite religious institutions.

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