BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

22nd May 2014

Bahrain investigating
death of teenager
A Bahraini teenager died on
Wednesday after clashes
between security forces
and demonstrators marking
the third day of mourning
for a young man killed by a
bomb blast last week,
witnesses and activists
said.
The Interior Ministry said
police were investigating a
report that a dead person
had been brought into a
clinic in the town of Sitra,
south of the capital
Manama.
The kingdom has suffered
low-level civil unrest since
mass protests in 2011 led
by Shiites demanding
reforms and a bigger share
of power in the state.
The main opposition group
Al Wefaq named the young
man as Sayed Mahmoud
Sayed Mohsen and said he
was 15. A witness said his
upper left side appeared to
have been hit by a burst of
birdshot.
Read More
Bahraini asylum
seeker wins UK stay
A last-minute judicial
intervention in the UK has
temporarily prevented the
deportation of a Bahraini
asylum-seeker as violence
in the strife-torn Gulf
monarchy continues, writes
Simeon Kerr.
Isa al-Awali, who has been
sentenced in absentia to
ve years in a Bahrain
prison for taking part in an
illegal gathering, had been
scheduled to y to Manama
on Thursday morning after
the government in London
rejected his asylum claim.
Activists and lawyers said a
judge on Wednesday
rejected calls for a review,
but an out-of-hours judge
later accepted a second
application and granted a
temporary stay.
Read More
Iran and Bahrain:
Crying Wolf, or Wolf
at the Door?
On May 5, in what has
become an increasingly
typical event in Bahrain,
several individuals threw
Molotov cocktails at a
police post in a Shiite
village, damaging
storefronts but causing no
casualties. Such incidents
have intensied over the
past few months in villages
surrounding the capital,
Manama -- in March, three
police ofcers were killed
by a bombing in al-Daih;
last month, an explosion
wounded another ofcer in
the same village; days later,
a police car was
rebombed in Hamad
Town.
In many cases, members of
Bahrain's majority Shiite
population have been
implicated in such attacks,
and the island's Sunni
monarchy has blamed
Iran's Shiite regime for
supporting the violence and
undermining its rule.
Meanwhile, U.S. ofcials
have their own concerns
about Tehran supporting
terrorist activity in Bahrain,
with the State Department
highlighting a recent
shipment of Iranian arms to
the island in its latest
annual counterterrorism
report. Yet Manama has a
credibility problem given its
heavy-handed response to
peaceful protests over the
past three years, making it
very difcult to assess the
extent to which Tehran is
actively fostering violence.
Read More
Bahraini MP
becomes first in
history to be sacked
A Bahraini MP has been
sacked for the rst time
since parliament was
formed in the kingdom 12
years ago.
An overwhelming majority
of MPs (31 of 34 present)
voted in a secret ballot on
Tuesday to oust Osama Al
Tamimi four weeks before
National Assembly
elections are due, Gulf
Daily News reported.
On Monday, parliament's
legislative and legal affairs
committee had
recommended Al Tamimi be
sacked for disrespecting
parliament, insulting
colleagues and improper
conduct, following an
investigation.
Read More