Bahrain Mirror: Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed extreme concern regarding the large-scale citizenship revocations in Bahrain, and the continuous prosecution of Shiite clerics and rights activists.

In an exclusive interview with Lualua TV, HRW's representative at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Laila Matar, said that the organization has recorded the revocation of 133 Bahraini in the past year. She said the revocations were driven by the victims' criticism towards the government, on media and social media platforms.

Matar confirmed that HRW is gravely concerned about the constitutional amendment passed by the Shura Council, granting military courts right to try civilians.

"We don't believe trying civilians should be in whether civil or military courts, because there is a problem with fair trial procedures in both courts," the HRW representative added.

Moreover, Matar expressed her organization's content that the High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke about the persecutions suffered by activists and dissidents. At the same time, she regretted not seeing any joint statement by the Human Rights Council's member states concerning Bahrain. She believed that this "send a signal to Bahrain, allowing it to continue its scandalous violations and campaign against the opposition and rights activists, with impunity."

Arabic Version