Bahrain Regime Summons Top Cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim to Court

Regime forces in Bahraini have handed a warrant to prominent cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim to appear in court, after clashing with supporters around his house.

Bahraini police forces used tear gas against Sheikh Qassimโ€™s supporters around his residence in the western Diraz region of the country in a brutal effort to gain access to the doorway of the house on Wednesday.

The supporters of the cleric, who have been camping out at the area as a protective measure for his safety, called on more people from the local population to join them following the police raid.

The sit-in protest outside of the clericโ€™s home entered its 185th day on Wednesday, according to Press TV.

The sit-in protest began on June 20, when Bahraini authorities stripped the 79-year-old cleric of his citizenship, less than a week after suspending the countryโ€™s main opposition party, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, and dissolving the Islamic Enlightenment Institution โ€” founded by the senior cleric โ€” and another opposition Islamic association.

Following the provocation against the cleric, a senior commander of Iranโ€™s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) publicly declared that the sanctuary of the top cleric was a red line, the violation of which would set fire to Bahrain and the entire region.

Major General Qassem Soleimani, who commands the IRGCโ€™s Quds Force, said in June that overstepping the red line would leave the people of Bahrain with no other choice but armed resistance.

Bahrainโ€™s Interior Ministry had alleged in a statement that Sheikh Qassim actively sought the โ€œcreation of a sectarian environmentโ€ through his connections with โ€œforeign powers,โ€ charges that were widely understood as regime attempts to silence the dissident cleric.

Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has seen a wave of anti-regime protests since mid-February 2011. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded or detained in a crackdown that Manama has been carrying out to crack down on dissent since then.

Soon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates โ€” themselves repressive Arab dictatorships โ€” deployed forces to Bahrain to assist the Manama regimeโ€™s crackdown on the peaceful protests.

Human rights groups have frequently censured the Al Khalifah regime for rampant human rights abuses against the opposition and anti-regime demonstrators.

The regime has imprisoned other senior clerics in the past. Sheikh Ali Salman, one such figure, has been sentenced to nine years in jail in a sham trial.

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