Bahrain Mirror: The head of the Religious Freedoms Department at the Bahrain Human Rights Observatory, Sheikh Maytham Al-Salman, said on Sunday (April 17, 2016) that the Bahraini "Public Prosecution decided to detain cleric Sheikh Mohammed Al-Mansi for a week over charges of inciting hatred and insulting the Ministry of Interior."

The Northern Governorate Chief Prosecutor Mohammed Salah said that the Public Prosecution received a notice from the police directorate in the Northern Province stating that a preacher whom the competent parties banned from delivering Friday sermons made a sermon that insulted a statutory body; the Ministry of Interior, and the kingdom's constitution.

The chief of the Northern Governorate noted that the prosecution launched investigations, reviewed the recorded sermon and interrogated the suspect in the presence of his lawyer. Sheikh Al-Mansi confessed that he delivered the sermon, and thus the prosecution detained him for 7 days pending investigation over charges of inciting hatred against the kingdom's constitutional system and insulting a statutory body. Investigations are still ongoing as an introduction to referring the defendant to a criminal trial.

Arabic Version