Bahrain to auction banned opposition’s seized assets

An administrative court ordered the auction of Al Wefaq's assets to be held on Wednesday.

Bahrain will auction the confiscated assets of the main Shiite opposition group that has been dissolved over terrorism-related charges, a judicial source said on Saturday.

An administrative court on Thursday ordered the auction of Al Wefaq’s assets to be held on Wednesday, the source said.

Security forces seized Al Wefaq’s assets, including its headquarters outside Manama and two other offices in Shiite villages, after the decision. the source said.

The group was dissolved in July over charges including harbouring terrorism, inciting violence and encouraging demonstrations which threatened to spark sectarian strife in the Shiite-majority country. The ruling by the administrative court in Manama was upheld by an appeals court last month.

The dissolution was criticised by UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Bahrain’s allies in Washington and London, as well as Shiite-dominated Iran which Manama accuses of meddling in its affairs.

Al Wefaq’s leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, has been behind bars since December 2014 on charges of inciting hatred and calling for forceful regime change.

But on Monday the cassation court overturned his nine-year jail sentence and ordered a retrial.

Al Wefaq was the largest group in parliament before its legislators resigned en masse in protest at a crackdown on protests in 2011 calling for an elected government.

Political parties are banned in Bahrain, so Al Wefaq operated as an association.

Also known as the Islamic National Accord Association, Al Wefaq is heir to the Bahrain Freedom Movement which played a key role in Shiite-led protests in the 1990s that sought the restoration of the elected parliament which was scrapped in 1975.

* Agence France-Presse