Manama: Bahraini authorities detained rights activist Mariam Al Khawaja on Saturday on her arrival at the Gulf state’s airport, her mother told Reuters.
Maryam is the daughter of Shiite activist Abdul Hadi Abdullah Hubail Al Khawaja, who has been detained in the country since 2011 and is on a hunger strike.
“Mariam told me that she will be transferred to the court tomorrow,” her mother, Khadija Al Musawi, said, adding that her daughter, who holds dual Bahraini and Danish citizenship, was coming back from Denmark.
Charges against Al Khawaja include insulting Bahrain’s king, and assaulting a policewoman at the airport, her mother said.
Bahraini authorities were not immediately available to comment but state news agency BNA cited chief prosecutor of Al Muharraq province, Abdullah Al Dossary, as saying that the public prosecution had begun an investigation into a complaint by Bahrain airport’s police.
The complaint said that an “accused woman” had been detained at the airport based on a previously issued arrest warrant. It said that the accused had assaulted a lieutenant and a policewoman after she refused to hand over her phone during a search. The report did not name Mariam.
Al Dossary was cited as saying that the accused was charged with assaulting a public employee while carrying out his official duty and would be detained for seven days pending an investigation.
