Bahrain Sunni activist pleads not guilty as trial opens

It comes as Bahrain detains a former member of parliament on charges of financing militants.

A prominent Sunni opposition leader in Bahrain pleaded not guilty to “promoting political change through forceful means” at the opening of his new trial on Monday.

Addressing the higher criminal court, Ibrahim Sharif said the charges against him were based on assumptions and not facts.

Mr Sharif, who used to head the secular Waed political group, was freed on June 19 after spending four years in jail over his involvement in 2011 Shiite-led anti-government protests.

But he was arrested again three weeks later for “violating the law”.

The activist has also been accused of promoting “violent disorder” in a “direct attempt to undermine stability in the kingdom and overthrow the regime”.

The next hearing will take place on October 12.

Mr Sharif played a prominent role in the month-long protests and was later among a group of 20 activists tried for plotting to overthrow the Sunni rulers of Shiite-majority Bahrain.

Opposition sources said he was taken back to prison after he criticised the government during a ceremony for a victim of the unrest.

Also on Monday, the main Shiite opposition bloc, Al Wefaq, denied accusations by authorities that its member, former lawmaker Sheikh Isa Hasan, was financing terrorism.

Bahraini authorities said the ex-MP was arrested on August 18 after returning from Iran – which the kingdom accuses of fuelling unrest on its soil.

He was being held “on charges related to financing terrorism among terrorist fugitives and others who are associated in terrorist acts”, according to an interior ministry statement published by the official BNA news agency.

His name was linked to several “terrorist cases”, including a blast that killed two policemen last month, it said, adding that he will be referred to public prosecution.

Al Wefaq insisted that “Isa is innocent of these accusations”, saying the bloc’s “leaders and members adhere to its nonviolent methodology”.

Mr Isa was elected in the 2010 parliamentary poll but resigned a year later during the protests.

* Agence France-Presse