Legal accountability has no sectarian basis: Al Rumaihi

Manama : Information Minister Ali bin Mohammed Al Rumaihi yesterday stressed Bahrain’s keenness to enforce the law without discrimination. 

The minister, however, said that growing political sectarianism and terrorist activities require intervention to ensure stability and ward off attempts to drag the country into anarchy. 

He criticised attempts to depict the legal procedures taken against some individuals and their organisational bodies as a sectarian attack by the Bahraini authorities.

The minister stressed that enforcing law on individuals and organisations found guilty of terrorism, violence is not an attack by the government but a constitutional duty to maintain stability. 

Commenting on the dissolution of Al-Wefaq Society, the Minister said the government had dealt with many legal violations with tolerance on several occasions. 

He pointed out that Al Wefaq Society is facing charges of violating the constitutional legitimacy and the fundamentals of the State of law by advocating foreign interference and violence.

The minister stressed that all convicts, including Al Wefaq Society Secretary-General, were found guilty of many charges like carrying out acts of terrorism, inciting sectarianism and justifying arson. 

He also remarked that the convicts’ legal guarantees were provided for them in open and transparent trials.

Al Rumaihi commented that revocation of the citizenship is a legitimate right of the government according to national and international laws. 

The Minister also criticised the Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Bahrain and Arab countries to destabilise them. 

Voicing confidence in the Bahraini people’s awareness, the minister stressed Bahrain’s success in overcoming the 2011 incidents and its resolve to prevent its recurrence. 

Al Rumaihi also hailed the approval given by the Arab Information Ministers Council in its 47th session on Bahrain’s proposal to work out a mechanism to stop transmission of the satellite channels inciting hatred and terrorism.  

Bahrain had called for cancelling such channels’ membership in the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) in the proposal, which was also approved.