Manama: Bahrain's interior ministry on Friday said that it arrested Ashwaq Al Muqabi after she was cleared by her doctor to leave the hospital following her treatment for sickle cell disease.
Ashwaq has been sentenced to six months in prison and her arrest was according to the due process of the law after she finished her treatment that was started on October 20, the ministry said. She will serve the sentence at the women's prison under medical monitoring, it said.
On Thursday, Al Wefaq, the largest opposition society, charged that the police had kidnapped Ashwaq from the hospital where she was being treated for her chronic disease.
"This is a crime that has no humanitarian or moral dimension," the society said.
However, the ministry rejected the charges.
'Criminal acts'
"What the society said was not true and aims to stir public opinion," the ministry said. "Whoever is genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of this girl should advise her to avoid getting involved in criminal acts that make her face legal action," it said.
Ashwaq was among a group of women arrested for staging a demonstration at the City Centre shopping mall last month. The society said that she was arrested while she was with her mother at the parking lot of the mall.
In a separate statement, Al Wefaq said that security forces had fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the house of Ali Salman, its secretary general, during attempts to disperse rioters in the area.
Businesses call for end of 'acts of terrorism'
Clashes between police and rioters have hit Bahrain in recent weeks, prompting the business community to issue a statement for the end of "acts of terrorism".
"Enough is enough" Essam Fakhro, chairman of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said. "The trade sector has had enough of these acts. They go against the values of tolerant Islam and Bahrainis' high spirit of patriotism and abhorrence of violence."
Fakhro said that the acts of violence amounted to a flagrant violation of the rights, security and freedoms of citizens and expatriates, and urged the civil society and citizens to stand united against them.
Oil
On Thursday, drivers came to a standstill and faced queues in the morning rush after masked youth blocked the Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Highway, a major link with the capital Manama with oil and debris that they set on fire.
On November 1, the highway was brought to a standstill after rioters poured oil across it and tied steel chains to streetlights to block traffic.
"Such an escalation could go out of control and lead to all-out sectarian strife, plunging Bahrain in a seditious inferno - whose dimensions cannot be fathomed," Fakhro said.
