Bahrain Mirror: In August 2017, the siege imposed on the home of Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, the highest Shia religious authority in Bahrain entered a fourth month, while Bahrain's National Security Agency, which the King gave the green light to make more arrests by a royal decree issued in early 2017, carried out a series of summonses and acts of torture. The NSA even had the audacity to torture one of the most prominent lawyers and legal advisors in the country, Ibrahim Sarhan. Sarhan made a testimony that revealed the extent of the brutal torture inflicted on him for defending political prisoners.

On a related note, three Bahraini human rights organizations issued a report entitled "Chambers of Death", which was widely received by both the human rights and media communities, having successfully and accurately documented the crimes of the national security agency, grabbing the attention of major media agencies around the world. An official statement was issued by the security services who denied the report, and accused Al-Jazeera TV of promoting it.

The US Secretary of State criticized Bahrain's record of religious freedoms, after the official release of the religious freedoms in the world report, issued by the US State Department every year. He noted the steep decline and harassment exercised by the Manama authorities against religious freedoms.

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