THE SENTENCING of eight opposition leaders to life imprisonment by a Bahraini military court is a bitter blow to the embattled forces of democracy in the Sunni-dominated kingdom. It is also a clear declaration of intent by the regime that bodes ill for any prospect of further national dialogue. The clearly sectarian nature of the jailings of moderates as well as militants will deepen Sunni-Shia divisions and indeed prompted further immediate demonstrations and barricade-building by young people.
The eight, who include Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a co-ordinator with Dublin-based human rights group Front Line, and the leaders of radical Shia group al Haq, are part of a group of 21 prominent activists who were convicted for allegedly plotting to bring down the government and, some, of having foreign links – ie to Iran, whose hand is blamed by the regime for all dissent. The others received sentences of between two and 15 years, seven handed down in absentia. Some 800 are still in jail arising out of the March uprising, while nearly 50 medical staff, including graduates from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland campus in Bahrain, are also being tried for assisting the wounded.
The use of a military court to try civilians is deeply disturbing, as is its refusal to consider strong evidence that some of the defendants have been subject to torture to force confessions which were then used against them. The defendants did not have access to lawyers, Human Rights Watch claims, and were held incommunicado with no access to their families for weeks.
Among those jailed, and the only Sunni among them, is the moderate leader of the secular Waad party which has been cooperating with the kingdom’s main Shia party, al Wefaq, in unofficial talks with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa. He had initiated a dialogue with the opposition in February. Those talks went nowhere to meet opposition reform aspirations but the country’s foreign minister has promised they will be reopened next week. Despite a formal lifting of martial law after 11 weeks, it is difficult to accept the good faith in regard to reform of the ruling Al Khalifa family which is said to be internally divided. Whether anyone turns up for the talks is another matter.
International human rights criticism of the kingdom was muted initially by concerns not to antagonise a key strategic ally of the west. But the US and EU protests – including Ireland’s – are now significantly more robust. Pressure must be maintained.