DUBAI: Bahrain’s Ali Salman, the jailed secretary-general of the banned Al Wefaq movement, refused to appear in court Monday to face charges of communicating with the Qatar to “overthrow the regime”, the attorney general said.
Salman and two members of his Wefaq movement, Hassan Sultan and Ali Al Aswad, are charged with “communicating with a foreign state to commit acts hostile to the state of Bahrain with the intent to harm its political, economic and national interests in order to overthrow the regime,” Attorney General Osama Al Awfi said.
He “refused to attend the hearing”, which has been deferred to Wednesday, Awfi said in a statement.
Ali Salman has been behind bars since 2014 serving a nine-year sentence for inciting hatred, while Sultan and Aswad are on the run.
In August, Bahraini authorities accused Salman of having collaborated with Qatar in 2011 to encourage protesters to take to the streets.
The accusations came after Bahrain, along with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, cut ties with Qatar in June over its support for extremism and ties with Iran.
Bahraini authorities have also accused Iran of backing protesters and of aiming to overthrow the government.
— AFP
