Bahrain puts curbs on rights group board

Manama: The Bahrain Human Rights Society said on Wednesday that the social development ministry had "frozen the prerogatives of the board and appointed a new director".

Last week, the ministry said it would take legal and administrative action against societies that did not have a national role and represented the interests of only one category or section.

The Bahrain Human Rights Society waded into controversy when journalists clashed at a press conference organised by the society, with relatives of detainees.

The journalists blamed the society for not condemning a physical assault on the managing editor of a local paper and for taking up only certain cases.

But the relatives reportedly insisted that the conference was devoted to discussing the case of the detainees and criticised journalists for their attitude.

Several members of the media launched attacks on the society and the Bahrain Journalists Association, the umbrella group for Bahrain journalists.

They blasted it for allowing its guests to verbally abuse journalists. The society rejected the criticism, saying that the journalists' version of the conference was inaccurate.

Meanwhile, Iran has reiterated its opposition to the violence that has afflicted Bahrain.

Iran's ambassador to Bahrain Hussain Amir Abdullah Hian said: "We do not tolerate any acts of terror in any sisterly or friendly country".

"We reject the acts of violence, sabotage and arson in Bahrain, and we support the reforms launched in the country," he told Bahrain's interior minister.

Abdullah Hian said that he had confidence in the ability of the Bahraini leadership to deal with security-related issues, the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported. Iran last month distanced itself from the wave of clashes sparked on August 13 in Bahrain, saying that countries with an agenda to harm the region were behind the acts of violence and arson, and the destruction of property.

Negative plans

"The instigators of the current violence in Bahrain are people working for countries with negative plans for the region," Abdullah Hian said.

Manama on Saturday said that it had dismantled a network which had been allegedly seeking to overthrow the regime and destabilise the country through acts of arson and sabotage. It named 23 of its members.

On Tuesday, the public prosecutor said it was pressing 12 charges against the network's top and middle leaders. Only two, who live in London, had not been arrested, it said.

Bahrain's prosecutor said that the laws and principles of human rights would be duly respected.