Bahrain opposition leader handed six-month jail sentence for criticizing Israel
Bahrain’s opposition leader Ebrahim Sharif has been handed a six-month prison sentence for criticizing the Israeli regime.
Sharif has been in prison since November on alleged charges of “spreading false news on social media” and “making offensive remarks against sister Arab states and their leaders.”
On Thursday, the Bahraini Lower Criminal Court sentenced the popular and outspoken left-wing leader to six months in jail. He was also fined 200 Bahraini dinars ($530).
According to the court, Sharif, in an interview with Lebanese Lua Lua TV in Beirut, has said that Arab states had failed to support the Palestinian cause.
In the interview, Sharif had denounced Arab leaders who were gradually normalizing diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime.
Sharif had “made statements containing false and offensive information about Arab countries, accusing them of collusion and conspiracy, and calling on their people to resist and rise up against their governments,” the public prosecutor’s office claimed in a statement posted on Instagram.
Bahraini activists expressed concern over the court ruling to convict Sharif to a six-month prison sentence over criticism of the monarchy due to normalizing diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime.
The Kingdom of Bahrain was among the number of Arab states that normalized diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords, introduced by US President Donald Trump during his first term in office.
The normalization of Manama-Tel Aviv diplomatic ties has been met with strong criticism from pro-Palestine campaigners in Bahrain and beyond, with anger over the move dramatically escalating after the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
During the Bahraini uprising in 2011, there were extensive protests aimed at toppling the Manama regime.
The monarch’s response to protests of any sort has been a heavy-handed crackdown by Bahraini police backed by the Saudi Arabian law-enforcement agents.
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