Bahrain court orders Al-Wefaq dissolved for 'harboring terrorism'

Sayed Hadi al-Mousawi, a spokesman for Bahrain's Shiite group Al-Wefaq, speaks during a press conference in Manama in this Oct. 14, 2015, file photo. Local media in Bahrain are reporting that a court has ordered the country's main Shiite opposition group to be dissolved. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

DUBAI: A court on Sunday ordered the dissolution of Bahrain’s Shiite main opposition group Al-Wefaq after finding it guilty of “harboring terrorism”, among other charges .
The administrative court in Manama also ordered the funds of the group to be seized by the government, said the justice ministry.
The ruling can still be appealed in the case.
Al-Wefaq was the largest group in parliament before its lawmakers resigned en masse in protest at the crushing of demonstrations in 2011 calling for an elected government.
The court said Al-Wefaq, which draws most of its support from Bahrain’s Shiite majority, incited violence and encouraged demonstrations and sit-ins which threatened to spark “sectarian strife.”
It said the bloc had “criticized the performance of the state authorities — executive, judicial, and legislative.”
On June 28, Al-Wefaq’s defense lawyers withdrew from court proceedings in protest at the government’s push to accelerate the process, which had initially been set for October 6.
The court had already suspended all of Al-Wefaq’s activities on June 14, ordering its offices closed and assets frozen.
Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa said “there will be no backtracking on the measures taken to preserve the nation’s security and stability.”
“There are hands that sought to become tools used by foreign regimes which want no good for Bahrain and its people. Their attempts have failed,” he said in remarks published on the official BNA news agency.
That is an allusion to Iran which Bahrain accuses of fomenting unrest among its Shiite majority.
The justice ministry, which sought Al-Wefaq’s dissolution, had accused the bloc of providing a haven for “terrorism, radicalization and violence” and opening the way for “foreign interference” in the kingdom’s affairs.
In October 2014, the administrative court banned Al-Wefaq for three months for violating the law on associations.
Al-Wefaq, also known as the Islamic National Accord Association, is heir to the Bahrain Freedom Movement which played a key role in Shiite-led anti-government protests in the 1990s that sought the restoration of the elected parliament scrapped in 1975.
Al-Wefaq’s chief, Shiite cleric Ali Salman, is serving a nine-year jail term for inciting violence after a court in May more than doubled his sentence.
Authorities have also stripped at least 261 people, including the country’s Shiite spiritual leader Sheikh Isa Qassem, of their citizenship since 2012, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.
And on Tuesday, a court denied bail for prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab as he went on trial on charges of insulting a state institution and neighboring Saudi Arabia online.