20 February 2019 – Yesterday, Bahrain’s Fourth High Criminal Court issued prison sentences against 39 defendants and stripped 25 of those individuals of their citizenship across three separate cases.
In one case alone, 17 individuals were revoked of their citizenship and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on various charges relating to arson and terrorism.
In the second case, 3 individuals were revoked of their citizenship out of 17 defendants, again for charges pertaining to terrorism-related offences, while another 5 lost their Bahraini nationality in the third case.
The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) has been documenting revocation of citizenship in Bahrain. With yesterday’s verdicts, 849 individuals have been stripped of their Bahraini nationality since 2012. 2018 marked the worst calendar year to date, with 304 instances of revocation.
Commenting, Director of BIRD, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, said: “Bahrain’s judiciary does not appear to be slowing down its punitive use of citizenship revocation. The total disregard for international law is audacious, especially since future generations will suffer the consequences of the collective punishment dished out by authorities.”
