Bahrain Court Orders Monitoring of 11-Year-Old Protester
A Bahraini court has ordered an 11-year-old Shiite boy charged with disturbing security to be monitored by a social worker for one year, a government statement said.
Ali Hassan, released from a juvenile care center on June 11, will remain free but a social worker who will visit him twice during a year, at six-month intervals.
The boy was arrested on May 14 and charged with "taking part in a public assembly aimed at disturbing security."
Noura al-Khalifa, the chief prosecutor for juveniles, said last month that Hassan had been arrested for blocking a street outside the capital Manama with garbage containers and wood planks.
Khalifa said Hassan had pleaded guilty, admitting he blocked the road repeatedly, and that he was arrested on his third attempt to shut the road.
Amnesty International has said Hassan was moved "between several police stations for a period of about four hours and interrogated ... that during that time he was alone, he became hungry and tired and eventually confessed to accusations against him."
He later denied the allegations and said he "confessed because police promised to release him if he did," it added.
Tensions remain high in Sunni-ruled Bahrain where a month-long Shiite-led uprising was crushed in March 2011. Demonstrations have intensified in recent months as protesters sporadically clash with the police.
Amnesty says 60 people have been killed since the protests first erupted in February 2011.
Source: Agence France Presse
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