Protesters Demand Release of Bahraini Political Prisoners amid Pope’s Visit

The relatives of death row and life inmates held the rally along the visiting Pope Francis' motorcade route, urging him to pressure the kingdom to free political prisoners in the Persian Gulf state.

The protest action was held as the pontiff -- who is on a historic four-day trip to the country -- and his retinue were passing along a road in the Isa Town in north-central Bahrain on Saturday.

The protesters held up placards blazoned with slogans urging the release of the country's political prisoners and an end to the radically-unfair ethnocentric practices of the ruling Al Khalifa regime.

One of the placards read, "Tolerance, Coexistence is a practice not just slogan. #Free Hassan Mushaima #Free Political Prisoners #End Sectarianism."

Hassan Mushaima is a former Bahraini MP, whom the regime has accused of subversive activities. He was handed a life sentence back in 2011, when the country's population rose up en masse against Manama's decades-long policy of sidelining and tyrannizing the Shiite majority.

The regime has been coming down hard on the pro-democracy protests ever since, killing hundreds of people and jailing thousands of others. The state has also dissolved the country's biggest opposition grouping known as al-Wefaq National Islamic Society.

A video of the protest, which included several women and children, was posted online by the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and al-Wefaq.

According to the BIRD, the protesters were forcibly taken away from the site by Bahraini police, but were later released.

A government spokesperson, however, alleged that there "have been no arrests or apprehensions related to the Papal visit."

Rights activist have warned that the regime might be trying to hijack the pontiff's visit to reflect a lenient image of itself so it can whitewash its widely-reported abuse of the Shiite majority.

Before the Pope arrived in Bahrain on Thursday, families of death row inmates asked him to speak out against capital punishment and defend political prisoners during the trip. They welcomed Pope Francis’ call for the revocation of the death penalty and observance of human rights in the kingdom, expressing hope that the pontiff would use the remainder of his historic four-day trip to visit families of death row inmates as well as the prisoners.

Maryam Alkhawaja, a Bahraini human rights activist and daughter of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, a prominent human rights defender imprisoned since 2011, told Middle East Eye that she and others had called on the Pope to cancel his visit to Bahrain or refuse to shake hands with the kingdom’s ruler, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, but neither of them came to pass.

The rights activist also said she believed the regime’s plan to use the Pope’s trip as a publicity stunt had backfired, adding, “The visit has worked against them as it has brought further attention to the disastrous human rights situation in the country.”

The Bahraini regime has imprisoned thousands of its opponents, mostly through mass trials, since an uprising began in the kingdom in 2011.

The kingdom has consistently rejected criticism from the United Nations and others rights bodies over its conduct of trials and detention conditions.