Bahrainis demonstrate to demand Saudi release of 3 terrorism suspects

Nov 15, 2008, 16:12 GMT

Manama, Bahrain - Relatives and supporters of three Bahraini detainees being held in Saudi Arabia on terrorism charges gathered in front of the UN House in Manama on Saturday to demand their immediate release.

The three include Abdulraheem al-Murbati, 47, who has spent more than six years in Saudi jails and former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abdulla Majid al-Nuaimi, 27, who was arrested recently as he attempted to enter Saudi Arabia.

The protesters criticized the incarceration of the three and the Bahraini government's silence toward the arrests of its citizens.

'We will address the UN High Commission for Human Rights in a letter this week to demand their intervention after the Saudi and Bahraini governments failed to react in accordance with the rights of the detainees,' Mohammed Janahi, head of the civil liberties committee of the National Justice Movement (NJM), told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa during the protest.

'These arrests are in violation of Islamic values and international laws because the detainees are being held under bad conditions without being charged or presented to trial.'

Janahi said the protesters believe that Bahraini authorities coordinated with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries on the arrests.

The Bahraini and Saudi governments have not commented on the recent arrests. In the past Bahraini officials had said they follow the cases of Bahrainis detained in Saudi Arabia via their embassy in Riyadh.

Al-Nuaimi, who was one of six Bahrainis being held in Guantanamo Bay, was freed in November 2005. No charges were ever filed against him by US or Bahraini authorities.

He had started his own small business and was in the process of finishing his master's degree when he was arrested by the Saudi authorities while en route to buy goods for his electrical goods shop.

Al-Murbati was arrested in April 2003 shortly after his brother Essa al-Murbati was arrested. Essa was then sent to Guantanamo. He is the longest serving of the three Bahrainis being held in Saudi prisons.

The Saudi authorities have also been holding Khalil Janahi for more then a year and half now.

Relatives of al-Murabati and Janahi said during the protest that they were not informed when either will be presented to stand trial. Family members reaffirmed the men's innocence.

'They should either clarify the charges and this misery for the families or they could just round us all up and put us in jail so we can be a family again because these arrests have been as harsh on the relatives as it has been on the detainees,' said Murbati's 20-year- old son, Osama.