Manama: Three Bahraini sailors who were held by Qatar for entering its territorial waters have been released.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Bahraini capital Manama said in a statement on Monday evening that the sailors were allowed to go home following “communications with the brothers concerned in Qatar”.
“Under directives from His Royal Highness the Prime Minister to care about citizens’ affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain in Qatar, and in coordination with the Court of His Royal Highness, communicated with the authorities concerned in Qatar regarding the three detained sailors,” the ministry said. “The efforts have resulted in their release.”
A relative said that the sailors were out fishing on August 13 and that they were arrested by the Qatari authorities reportedly for entering the country’s territorial waters.
“At around sunset, we heard gunshots near our ship,” the relative reported the sailor as saying. “We did not know the source, but we decided to leave. However, we were surprised to see a Qatari patrol asking us to stop. They informed us that we had entered Qatar’s territorial waters, and we told them that we were not aware of our location. They asked us to go with them just to sign a pledge,” the sailor said, Bahraini daily Al Ayam reported last week.
However, he added that the sailors were not allowed to leave after signing the pledge.
“They told us that the public prosecutor would look into our case, and he eventually decided to keep us for four days.”
The brother said that all the indications showed that the sailors were fishing and that they were not engaged in any form of trafficking or smuggling.
Relatives said the Bahrain embassy in the Qatari capital Doha gave them a list of lawyers who could assist to put an end to the situation.
However, some relatives opted to appeal through Al Ayam to Bahrain’s Prime Minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa who gave directives to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist the sailors and their families.
