Bahrain split over activists' detention

Manama: Bahrain was on Wednesday deeply divided over how to tackle mounting social and political tension over the public prosecutor's decision to remand activists to custody for 14 days while investigations into their case continue.

Popular and political pressure to free the three activists without delay was met by insistence from MPs and some societies that they should face the law for the charges brought against them.

The security authorities on Monday arrested Haq Movement leaders, Hassan Mshaima, Mohammad Habib Al Moqdad and Abdul Jalil Al Singace, after they refused to appear before the public prosecutor on Sunday afternoon for questioning on their alleged links with 14 Bahrainis arrested in December on suspicion of plotting attacks in Manama on National Day.

Al Singace was allowed to go home on the same day, but was banned from travelling, while Mshaima and Al Moqdad were remanded in custody after they were charged by the public prosecutor with promoting regime change through terrorism.

Al Singace yesterday denied any involvement in the alleged December plot, saying that he did not know any of the 14 suspects.

"I was not maltreated during the detention, but I could not phone my family to inform them of my whereabouts," he said.

The arrests sparked a series of clashes with the police on Tuesday evening with rioters demanding the immediate release of Mshaima and Al Moqdad.

They hurled stones, burned tyres and set ablaze trash cans. Several rallies were thwarted by the police after organisers failed to secure the required permits.

Jalila Al Sayyed, lawyer for Mshaima, called for her client to be allowed to go home on the grounds that his health was frail and he could remain in custody.

Al Wefaq, the religious and political society from which Mshaima and Al Singace splintered in 2005 to form Haq Movement, said that they should be released and warned of a deterioration in the situation because of the standoff.

Its deputy head, MP Khalil Marzouq, said solutions could not be achieved through force.

Ahmad Juma, the head of Al Meethaq society, said the problem had several dimensions. He deplored the lack of awareness about the significance of the political reforms and accused political formations of fomenting trouble.