Charges against Al Wefaq trio, accused of leaking secrets to Qatar, a travesty of justice, say activists

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Bahraini court has given life sentences to three senior opposition members in a case criticised as a “travesty of justice” by human rights groups and as “very concerning” by the British Foreign Office.

A close ally of the UK and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is due to hold elections on 24 November and the sentences will again raise questions about the west’s willingness to put security concerns ahead of human rights in the Gulf.

In Bahrain the US and UK each have military bases, the latter funding, for years, aspects of the country’s human rights, prisons and police work.

The Bahrain public prosecutor statement said the court sentenced Sheikh Ali Salman, secretary-general of the opposition group Al Wefaq National Islamic Society, and Sheikh Hassan Sultan, and Ali Alaswad, members of the same group, to life in jail for spying for Qatar.

Bahrain’s public prosecutor had appealed against an earlier court ruling that had acquitted the three senior leaders.

Salman was convicted on charges of “communicating with the state of Qatar, disclosing and handing over defence secrets, and accepting money from a foreign country in return for providing military secrets and information related to the internal situation of the country”.

Sultan and Alaswad were tried in absentia.

The court charges were based on an audio recording of a phone call between Salman and Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thanian, at the time the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Qatar. The recording was then broadcast by Bahrain’s state television in August 2017.

Courts in Bahrain, where the US navy’s Fifth Fleet is based, last year dissolved Al Wefaq and the National Democratic Action Society (Waad), accusing them of helping to foster violence and terrorism. Representatives of Al Wefaq claim more political prisoners were imprisoned in Bahrain than in any other Gulf country.

Salman is already serving a four-year prison sentence for inciting hatred and insulting the interior ministry, after he was arrested in 2015. He was due to be released in four months, but the new sentence quashes his hopes of freedom.

Bahrain, one of Saudi Arabia’s closest allies in the Gulf, imposed a boycott on Qatar last year, accusing it of supporting terrorism and backing the Muslim Brotherhood. The country is predominantly Shia but led by a Sunni royal family. The regime has made progress in ending modern slavery but its repression of political opposition has been widely condemned.

Alistair Burt, the British Middle East minister, tweeted that he was “very concerned” to hear of further sentencing of Salman. He said the Foreign Office would “continue to closely follow the case and raise with the government of Bahrain as part of our open dialogue”.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and north Africa director, said in a statement: “This verdict is a travesty of justice that demonstrates the Bahraini authorities’ relentless and unlawful efforts to silence any form of dissent. Sheikh Ali Salman is a prisoner of conscience who is being held solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.”

Sima Watling, Amnesty International’s campaigner on Bahrain, told the broadcaster Al Jazeera, from Beirut, that the court verdict was “absurd”.

Bahrain has also barred members of dissolved opposition groups from running in parliamentary elections due to be held later this month. Al Wefaq, which has strong links to the country’s Shia Muslim majority, and Waad, which is seen as a secular movement, have each campaigned for social and political reforms in the country.

Bahrain last year ratified a constitutional amendment granting military courts the authority to try civilians charged with “terrorism”, a term that is loosely defined by the Bahraini penal code.

The UK government has been repeatedly challenged by MPs about the secretive funding it provides Bahrain, and urged by the foreign affairs select committee to provide proof that the aid is leading to reform.

Britain has insisted it will alter its ties with Saudi Arabia, one of Bahrain’s closest allies, if it is not satisified with the inquiry into the admitted murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul this October. The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said that an unsatisfactory inquiry would show that the UK and Saudi Arabia did not have shared values.