SHAFAQNA – Acquittal of Bahrain Shia opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman could be a sign for an end to repression against majority Shia population.
Bahrainis rose up against the regime in 2011, calling for a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister. The protests – led by Bahrain’s Shia population – were brutally suppressed by authorities and a Saudi-led intervention force, The New Arab reported.
Since then, thousands have been jailed, freedom of expression has been suppressed, hundreds of Bahrainis have had their citizenship stripped and the majority Shia population lives in fear in what has become for them a police state.
Hope is a commodity in short supply but there are signs that in the Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain, hope for an end to political stalemate between the country’s Shia Muslim majority population and its Sunni ruling family may not be misplaced.
There are signs that the cycle of repression may be coming to an end.
The first and probably strongest indication was the acquittal of Sheikh Ali Salman, Al Jazeera reported.
Sheikh Ali Salman – head of Bahrain’s banned al-Wefaq Party – was found not guilty on all charges, along with two of his aides who were tried in absentia.
“Sheikh Ali Salman was found innocent,” Sheikh Maytham al-Salman of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights told AFP.
“We hope this ruling opens the way for dialogue and reconciliation.”
Groups including the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, also confirmed his acquittal.
The judicial system in Bahrain is deeply politicised so such a decision could not have been reached without a clear signal from the government. It is not a signal that would have come from the hardliners who include the long-serving justice minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa. He has presided over the jailing of the leaders of the opposition and of human rights activists, notably Nabeel Rajab and Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, and the banning of political societies, including al-Wefaq.
It is, therefore, possible that the reform wing within the royal family is responsible for the acquittal. Behind the scenes pressure from Bahrain’s allies, principally the US, will have strengthened the reformers’ hand. Tellingly, when the Bahraini public prosecutor announced that he would appeal the acquittal, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert was emphatic: “We urge Bahraini prosecutors not to pursue an appeal of the judge’s ruling,” and she added, “we repeat our call on the Government of Bahrain to release Ali Salman from prison and grant relief from his previous conviction.”
The second indication that change is in the wind has to do with the diminished presence of the prime minister and his alleged marginalisation.
This may be explained in part by the fact that both the Emiratis and the Saudis who between them are shoring up Bahrain’s battered economy are said to have expressed their wish that the world’s longest-serving prime minister should be retired.
Finally, al-Wefaq though banned, has just produced a declaration that in its language and tone is remarkably close to a document that the crown prince released in 2008, called Vision 2030 (not to be confused with a document of the same name released by the Saudis in 2016.)
Wefaq’s Declaration of Principles and Common Interests renounces all forms of violence and calls for a pathway to a constitutional monarchy while “preserving the social fabric of the Kingdom of Bahrain to achieve civil peace, coexistence, tolerance and sustainable stability needed to promote development”.
Vision 2030, though it is a plan for economic development, speaks of “a just, thriving society, a safe and secure environment [in which] Bahraini nationals and residents enjoy a sustainable and attractive living environment.” It also speaks of a “progressive, stable government” and “fairness in society”.
The Wefaq declaration could be used to call for dialogue to break a political stalemate that has severely damaged the Bahraini economy. There have been reports circulating that some representatives of the ruling family have already reached out unofficially to the opposition.
Serious roadblocks remain. Members of banned political societies have been barred from contesting seats in November’s parliamentary elections. Many human rights activists and political oppositionists are jailed.
Shia communities are under intense and constant police surveillance and their senior religious authority Sheikh Isa Qassim is effectively under house arrest. Seven years of ongoing protest and repression have created a huge trust deficit between the opposition and the government.
Still, at a time and in a country where there is so much despair that a solution will ever be found, a sliver of hope, no matter how thin, may be just enough to show the way forward towards dialogue and reconciliation. That can’t be a bad thing.
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