20th June 2012

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Bahrain court delays verdict for 11-year-old
A Bahrain court on Wednesday delayed a verdict in the case of an 11-year-old boy accused of taking part in anti-government protests. The new date for a ruling is July 5. The sixth-grade student, who was in court alongside his father, spent a month behind bars and took his final school exams there. The boy, Ali Hasan, faces charges of joining an illegal gathering and other claims related to the unrest in the troubled Gulf nation. Defense lawyer Shahzalan Khamis has asked the court to drop the charges. The boy is one of the youngest suspects detained in crackdowns on protests led by Bahrain's Shiite majority, which seeks a greater political voice from the ruling Sunni dynasty. The government on Wednesday defended its handling of the Hasan case. It said an investigation concluded the youngster was arrested for blocking a road in June and was held in police custody for only six hours. He was in juvenile detention for the next month. Read More Reprinted here:
Bahrain court delays verdict for 11year-old - StamfordAdvocate Bahrain court delays verdict for 11year-old | HeraldTribune.com Bahrain delays verdict in case of 11-year-old | NewsOK.com Bahrain Delays Verdict for 11Year-Old Protester - Ali Hasan spent a month in jail already Bahrain Delays Verdict in Case of 11-Year-Old - ABC News

Bahrain 11-year-old 'to hear verdict on July 5'

A Bahraini court will issue its verdict on July 5 in the trial of an 11-year-old Shiite boy charged with disturbing security, his lawyer said on Wednesday. "The verdict will be issued on July 5," his lawyer said after a hearing of the juvenile court in Manama. The announcement comes two days after human rights

watchdog Amnesty International urged Bahrain's courts to drop all charges against the child. The boy, Ali Hasan, was arrested on May 14 and later charged with "taking part in a public assembly aimed at disturbing security." He was released on bail on June 11. Read More Reprinted here:
THE DAILY STAR :: News :: Middle East :: Bahrain 11-year-old to hear verdict on July 5: lawyer Bahrain 11-year-old 'to hear verdict on July 5' - FRANCE 24

Bahraini boy, 11, charged with helping protesters

Prosecutors in Bahrain have charged an 11-year-old boy with taking part in an illegal gathering, which could see him sent to jail. Ali Hasan, a primary school pupil from the capital's suburban area of Bilad alQadeem, was picked up by security officials from his neighbourhood on accusations that he helped protesters block a street with rubbish containers and wood during anti-government demonstrations in the area last month. He subsequently

spent nearly a month in a juvenile detention centre before being released last week to await trial. Ali told the Guardian he was merely playing with friends in the street and had nothing to do with the protests. "The verdict will be issued on 5 July," said Ali's lawyer, Shahzalan Khamees, who defended him at the juvenile criminal court in Manama on Wednesday. "They charged him with illegal gathering that has a few weeks up to three years imprisonment as punishment under the country's law." Ali was accompanied to court by his father, Jasem Hasan. Read More bailed out last week where he was allowed to take his nal school exams. Like many countries in the Gulf region, Bahrain has been experiencing civil unrest since February last year; clashes between antigovernment protesters and police have resulted in an estimated 50 deaths so far. Read More

Bahrain Court Delays Verdict on 11-Year-Old Boy Ali Hasan over Protest Barricade Charge
Ali Hasan, an 11-year-old boy, will have to wait until 5 July for the verdict over his alleged participation in antigovernment protests. Ali has spent a month in jail, where he took his final school exams, after being charged

with joining an illegal gathering and helping protesters erect a barricade during pro-democracy protests in May. Defence lawyer Shahzalan Khamis has asked for the charges to be dropped. The boy was arrested on 13 May near his home in suburban Manama. While he denies the charges against him, he said he was forced into making a confession while in detention. Read More

Condemnation over 11year-old on trial in Bahrain

Regional condemnation has been sparked against the Bahrain government over the trial of an 11-year-old child on charges of blocking a street with trash containers.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), a pan-Arab human rights organization focusing on freedom of speech, has denounced the detention of the child. Bahrain is continuing to eliminate human rights, escalate the crackdown on activists, and neglect all calls for reform, a statement from ANRHI read. Read More

Bahrain Puts 11-yearold on Trial over Protests

Playing in the street with your friends could land you in a Bahraini jail, as sixthgrader Ali Hasan has discovered. Charged with taking part in an illegal gathering and allegedly blocking a road, the 11year-old had spent a month in prison before being

11-year-old awaits verdict

A Bahraini court will issue its verdict on July 5 in the trial of an 11-year-old Shiite boy charged with disturbing security, his lawyer said yesterday. The verdict will be issued on July 5, his lawyer said after a hearing of the juvenile court in Manama. The announcement comes two days after human rights watchdog Amnesty International urged Bahrains courts to drop all charges against the child. The boy, Ali

Hasan, was arrested on May 14 and later charged with taking part in a public assembly aimed at disturbing security. He was released on bail on June 11. Nura al-Khalifa, the chief prosecutor for juveniles, said Hasan had been arrested for blocking a street outside the capital Manama with garbage containers and wood planks. Khalifa said that Hasan had pleaded guilty, admitting he blocked the road repeatedly, and that he was arrested on his third attempt to shut the road. Read More Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and particularly Bahrain, such a proposal suggests an attempt to form a dominant Sunni bloc that would tip the balance of power at a time when tensions are escalating between Shia and Sunni Muslims in the wake of the Arab uprisings. Five countries in the GCC Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are Sunnidominated societies. Read More worlds tallest building, biggest shopping mall, and largest aluminum, plastic, ceramics, and petrochemical complexes. Save coastal China, no other region has seen such a remarkable transformation in such a brief time span. Read More

Bahraini boy due to hear verdict

July 5th is the date scheduled for a verdict in the trial of an 11-year-old Shiite boy who was charged with allegedly blocking a road. 11-year-old Ali Hasan was arrested in May 14th following unrest in the streets of his neighbourhood which is situated outside of the island kingdoms capital Manama.

Approached by security forces his friends ran but he -frozen with fear -- didn't join them and was subsequently arrested and has spent the past month in jail. He was charged for "taking part in a public assembly aimed at disturbing security." The latest news regarding his case (as reported by France 24, TIME and ABC News) state that his verdict will be reached by July 5. Read More "At the date of this prospectus, the Development Fund has not been capitalised," the Bahrain government said in the preliminary prospectus, dated June 19 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Foreign ministers from six Gulf Arab oil exporting countries announced the fund's creation in March 2011, in order to help Bahrain and Oman combat social unrest spreading across the Middle East. Read More countries, including Northern Ireland which overcame an ethno-political conflict that lasted more than three decades. Bahrainis should also not seek shortcuts to solve the sectarian rift that has polarised the country since February last year, according to Equality Commission for Northern Ireland commissioner Peter Sheridan. Read More lived and worked in Bahrain for many years, I can testify that personnel of Pakistaniorigin are merely economic immigrants there, who were recruited to serve in career positions in the Bahraini internal security department, which also includes the police. They are not hired for a short period as soldiers or guerilla adventurers to serve in a civil or external war as hired guns for the duration of a conflict. Read More

Gulf union might do more harm than good

Ever since Saudi Arabias King Abdullah proposed forming a political federation among the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the pros and cons have been fiercely debated across the Middle East. For many Arabs in the region, particularly Shia communities in Lebanon,

Gulf $20 bln aid fund not yet capitalisedBahrain

A $20 billion fund planned by wealthy Gulf Arab states to aid Bahrain and Oman has not been capitalised yet, but Bahrain expects to receive an allocation soon, a prospectus for the country's upcoming sovereign bond issue said.

Gulf capitalism
All the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) transformed over the past decade Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE- boast of

Bahrain must find own way to resolve crisis'

Bahrain should be left to sort out its own affairs as it tries to recover from last year's unrest, said an international expert on social reconciliation. It could learn from experiences of other

NGOs urged to comply with foreign funds rule in Bahrain

Bahrains social development minister has urged all local societies, organisations, clubs and foundations to comply with the law regulation obtaining funds from abroad or sending money overseas. The law clearly specifies that sending or receiving funds from abroad requires the

approval of the ministry, and while societies in general have upheld the rules, others have failed to report the transactions, Fatima Al Beloushi said. We urge all NGOs to cooperate positively with the ministry on the laws regulating across the border funds and to obtain the required clearance from the ministry before they send or receive foreign funds, she said. Read More

Pakistanis in Bahrain
This is with reference to you editorial Arab Spring undone (June 18) that claimed that a lot of the actions against the protestors have been carried out by Pakistani mercenaries in Bahrain. I was shocked by this assertion. As someone who