Conspiracy accusations over lifting three MPs’ immunity

Manama : Conspiracy accusations are hovering around lifting the parliamentary immunity from three MPs over defamation allegations.

Following the request of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa to strip the MPs off their immunity last week, it was scheduled for the council’s Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee to discuss the matter in their weekly meeting yesterday in order to refer to the council tomorrow.

However, the committee postponed the discussion due to “lack of quorum,” sparking a wave of criticism, especially from MP Roua Al Hayki who lodged a complaint against the three MPs after they issued a statement that she deemed “defamatory and harming her reputation.”

The three MPs are Khalid Al Shaer, Hamad Al Dossary and Ghazi Al Rahma, who “requested to be excused from attending the meeting and to send their defence statements in writing,” said Committee Head Ali Al Ateesh in a statement.

Al Hayki, who claimed that she was yesterday waiting outside the meeting room for over an hour and a half, accused the committee of deliberately breaking the quorum to delay the process.

“The quorum was achieved during the whole meeting and was only broken when it was my turn to enter and give my statements to the committee,” she mentioned on her official Twitter page.

Delaying the discussion of the matter means it would not be presented to the council in its weekly meet tomorrow, which is the final one in the ongoing legislative term, and indicates that the issue would be postponed for a couple of months.

“It’s clear that they don’t want to hear my statements and obstruct justice. Lift the parliamentary immunity off the accused MPs. I didn’t request to withdraw their membership. I was told that I won’t find justice in my request and I insisted that I have hope,” Al Hayki tweeted while demanding the committee to hold another meeting today to discuss the matter and refer it to the council tomorrow.