Bahraini authorities have interrogated detained opposition leader Nabeel Rajab for spreading false information in an article published in French daily Le Monde.
It was the second such probe into his writings in recent months.
On Thursday, Bahrain’s interior ministry announced an investigation into Mr Rajab over the letter to the newspaper, which it said contained “false rumours” and “represented an abuse of the Kingdom of Bahrain” and other Gulf countries.
Mr Rajab, who already faces 15 years in jail for his criticism of Manama’s main ally Saudi Arabia, was accused of making comments that “harm the interests” of Bahrain and other Gulf countries, the official BNA news agency said on Thursday.
A piece published by Le Monde on Tuesday attributed to Mr Rajab denounced the ISIL extremist group and accused Gulf nations of failing to tackle the rise of its violent ideology.
The news agency said the case had been transferred to the prosecutor’s office and added that Mr Rajab, a leading opposition activist and the founder of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, denied writing the article in question.
Mr Rajab was arrested in June for comments on Twitter that criticised Saudi Arabia’s role in military operations in Yemen, according to Human Rights Watch.
The court dealing with the case has repeatedly ordered that Mr Rajab, 51, remain in custody despite recurring health problems for which he was briefly hospitalised in late June.
Mr Rajab was pardoned last year in another case for health reasons.
The next hearing in that trial is scheduled for December 28.
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
