Bahrainis Hold Fresh Anti-Regime Protest


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Bahraini demonstrators rallies peacefully to condemn the Al Khalifa regime’s refusal to hand over the body of a protester recently killed by security forces.

The security forces on Friday fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators in the village of Daih near the capital, Manama, Press TV reported.

Abdul-Aziz al-Abbar died over a month ago after 50 days in a coma due to injuries sustained in an attack by security forces.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa family to relinquish power.

In March 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were called in to assist the Bahraini regime in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.

Human rights organizations have on various occasions slammed the Bahraini regime for using excessive force against peaceful protests.

On May 23, Amnesty International urged Bahraini authorities to launch an impartial investigation into the death of the teenage boy. The group also called on Manama to investigate all cases of torture, ill-treatment and deaths that occurred during protests and in custody.

Amnesty says Manama is whitewashing the cases in which the security forces were accused of killing protesters.

In its latest report on Bahrain, Human Rights Watch lashed out at the Manama regime’s justice system, describing it as “criminal” and censuring its “failure to deliver basic accountability and impartial justice.”

The 64-page report, titled “Criminalizing Dissent, Entrenching Impunity: Persistent Failures of the Bahraini Justice System since the BICI Report,” found that more than two years after the country’s ruler King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa accepted the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) to free peaceful dissenters and hold abusive officials accountable, the courts in the kingdom continue to play a key role in maintaining the regime’s highly repressive political order.