A Bahraini court on Sunday postponed its verdict on dozens of Shiite clerics accused of links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and conspiring to undermine the country’s constitutional order.
Sources familiar with the case told MBN that the court set Nov. 22 as the new date for the verdict.
The delay in the verdict comes as protests were held in several predominantly Shiite areas, according to sources who spoke to MBN. Some 20 human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, issued a joint statement expressing concern about the trial proceedings.
The statement cited allegations that defendants had been tortured and forced to confess, as well as restrictions on some defendants’ access to their lawyers and difficulties obtaining evidence. It called for an independent investigation into these allegations.
The trial comes amid regional tensions following the war with Iran and attacks targeting Bahrain and other Gulf states. The charges center on alleged links to the IRGC, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization. The case has also brought renewed attention to the strained relationship between the authorities and the Shiite opposition, dating back to the 2011 protests, which called for political and constitutional reforms.
According to human rights organizations, the case involves 69 defendants, including 60 Shiite clerics. Judicial authorities barred the defendants’ families and human rights activists from entering the courtroom to attend Sunday’s hearing.
A Key Country in the Region
Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters, which Iran struck with missiles and drones on Feb. 28, the first day of the war. Through August, Bahrain was the fourth-most-targeted country by Iran since hostilities began, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The kingdom is the only Gulf Cooperation Council state with a Shiite-majority population, but it is ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa family. Bahraini officials have long accused Iran of backing violent Shiite groups in the country, and Saudi forces helped the government suppress the mostly Shiite 2011 uprising.
Bahraini authorities said the case concerns threats to national security, not the defendants’ sectarian affiliation. Human rights organizations, however, accused the authorities of violations during the investigation and trial, including extracting confessions under coercion and restricting the defendants’ right to defend themselves.
Security Charges and Human Rights Concerns
The case began with a wave of arrests on May 9 that included clerics, preachers and prominent Shiite religious figures. Trial hearings began in July.
According to information obtained by MBN, 11 people are being tried in absentia, including Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, Bahrain’s most senior Shiite cleric and spiritual leader of the dissolved Al Wefaq opposition group, and Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Abdullah al-Daqaq, who runs a seminary in Qom, Iran. Bahrain stripped both men of their citizenship in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The defendants in custody include prominent religious figures such as Sheikh Mohammed Sanqour, who leads Friday prayers at the Imam al-Sadiq Grand Mosque in Diraz, home to Bahrain’s largest Shiite congregation.
Authorities accuse the defendants of “establishing and joining a group linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, communicating with foreign entities, raising funds to finance activities classified by the authorities as terrorist, and seeking to undermine the constitutional order.”
Law, Not Faith
Bahrain’s chief of public security, Lt. Gen. Tariq al-Hassan, said in remarks reported by Reuters that security measures were aimed at activities threatening the country’s security and not directed against Shiite citizens because of their faith.
However, Baqer Darwish, head of the Bahrain Forum for Human Rights, told MBN that the trial was conducted “under secretive conditions, and that some defendants were subjected to pressure and forced to make confessions.”
He said Sanqour “was asked only three questions before being confronted with lengthy confessions attributed to him.”
Darwish added that, according to information available to him, some defendants had been subjected to “threats of torture, revocation of their citizenship and deportation,” as well as threats against their relatives.
MBN could not independently verify these allegations.
Separately, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy documented testimonies that included complaints of threats and mistreatment during interrogations. The institute said Bahrain’s Special Investigation Unit, which operates under the Public Prosecution, did not substantiate some of these allegations.
Security Measures Since the War with Iran
The trial comes as Bahraini authorities have taken additional security measures since the outbreak of the war with Iran. In April, Reuters reported that Bahrain had revoked the citizenship of 69 people of Iranian origin as part of security measures following the war.
Darwish says the case is part of broader policies aimed at restricting the political and religious activities of the Shiite opposition. He accused the authorities of exploiting regional circumstances to expand their security measures.
Those tensions trace back to 2011, when mostly Shiite protesters demanding political reform occupied central Manama. The government declared a state of national safety in March and crushed the movement, killing at least 35 people. Since then, the government has often cast Shiite dissent as Iranian-inspired.
Darwish said alleged inconsistencies raised by the defense regarding the confessions and investigative procedures, along with international human rights scrutiny, may have contributed to the postponement of the verdict.
