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Bahrain Court Orders Dissolution of Last Major Opposition Group

by Associated Press

   DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES --

   A court in Bahrain ordered the country's last main opposition group
   dissolved and its property confiscated Wednesday in the latest blow to
   reformers and dissenting voices in the Middle Eastern island nation.

   The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said the political
   society known as Waad planned to appeal the ruling. Waad confirmed the
   court order for its dissolution on its official Twitter account.

   The Justice Ministry had launched proceedings to dissolve the
   15-year-old group, alleging that Waad incited acts of terrorism,
   promoted the violent overthrow of the Sunni-led government and
   "glorified convicted terrorists and saboteurs." The government used
   similarly broad wording to dissolve the country's largest Shi'ite
   opposition group, al-Wefaq.

   Bahrain is a majority Shi'ite nation ruled by a Sunni monarchy with
   close ties to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which sent
   forces to help quell an Arab Spring-style uprising in 2011.

   The government accuses Shi'ite-ruled Iran, which lies across the
   Persian Gulf from Bahrain, of arming and training some protesters to
   destabilize the country. Shi'ite militant groups have claimed
   responsibility for some deadly attacks on police, but Iran denies it
   has trained or assisted groups in Bahrain.

   Waad's dissolution came a week after five people died in a police raid
   on the hometown of a prominent Shi'ite cleric who was stripped of his
   nationality and faces possible deportation. Police arrested 286 people
   in the raid, adding to the hundreds more who have been jailed, forced
   into exile or stripped of their nationality in recent years.

   Both Shi'ite, Sunni activists

   Two smaller opposition groups remain active, but Waad was seen as the
   last major opposition group still functioning in Bahrain, which is home
   to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. The secular group included both Shi'ite
   and Sunni activists and political figures. Its offices were targeted by
   vandals and twice set ablaze.

   "Today matters because it says the government won't just not tolerate
   Shi'ite opposition, it won't tolerate any opposition," Brian Dooley, a
   senior adviser at Human Rights First, told The Associated Press.

   Rights group Amnesty International said Bahrain "is now heading towards
   total suppression of human rights" with Wednesday's court ruling.

   The case stems from a statement Waad made in February on the
   anniversary of the country's 2011 uprising in which the group
   criticized the Bahraini constitution.

   "Their only so-called 'crime' is exercising their right to freedom of
   expression and association," said Lynn Maalouf, director of research at
   Amnesty International's Beirut regional office.

   Separately, Amnesty International reports that human rights activist
   Ebtisam al-Saegh said she was tortured for seven hours in Bahrain
   during an interrogation last month. She said she was blindfolded,
   beaten, kicked and kept standing for most of the time, and that she was
   threatened with the rape of her daughter and the torture of her
   husband.