Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The recent moves by the Interior Ministry against a number of Tweeters, such as Lawyer Abdullah Hashim and his associates came as a result of the Arad land plot, which was granted by the King to Naif, son of Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, a Royal Court Minister, and Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, head of Museums Directorate. This is the real reason, which a number of Twitter users realized, for their recent summons for interrogation at the Cyber Crimes Department of the Ministry of the Interior.

This is something some of them kept to themselves and did not announce publicly. The interrogation of the wife of the former Bahrain national team goalkeeper Hamoud Sultan was focused on the same thing. The Interior Ministry officers tried to make her like others sign a written vow, but she refused to do so. That's why she was questioned for hours.

The hint was clear in Abdullah Hashim's first tweet after the interrogation ended: "The bias towards the truth, the poor, the country's safety and stability, and the fight against corruption are irreversible ..."

It has become obvious from this case that important sovereign institutions such as the Ministry of the Interior have turned into mere instruments through which the political and economic goals of those close to the king are realized.

This way, the son of the Bahraini Royal Court Minister Shaikh Naif bin Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Urban Planning and Development Authority made a victory against the people of Arad and a number of members of the Municipal Council in Muharraq, by the construction of a private commercial complex in the center of a land plot that was intended for public benefit in the area.

A number of them returned to tweeting, but with obvious fear and caution. Lawyer Mohammed Al-Othman, for instance, had deleted his account from Twitter, and then decided to reactivate it. He did this twice. His client as well who attended the interrogation, former Brotherhood MP Mohammad Khalid deleted his Twitter page under the pretext that he did not want to worry his mother. This indicates the extent of the agitation experienced by a number of Twitter users, who have adopted recently raised issues, such as the Arad land case or the case of Hamad Town Girls School (the Lareka pills issue).

MP Ammar Qambar, the representative of the residents of Arad, remained silent following a single statement he made about the Arad land plot issue. A close confidants said that Khalid bin Ahmed believes that any success of the campaign against his son and his partner's construction of a commercial complex in Arad might open the door to further objections against him in other files in the future. This is the same approach adopted by Khalifa bin Salman, the Prime Minister, with the MPs who tried to investigate the case of how a member of his entourage (Ibrahim Al-Dosari) came to own Al-Reem Commercial Complex land plot in Riffa.

Arabic Version