Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's Fourth High Criminal Court, presided over by judge Ali bin Khalifa Al-Dhahrani, with the membership of judges Hamad bin Salman and Jamal Awad, and Ahmad Al-Sulaiman as secretariat, ordered renewing the detention of a youth in his 20s accused of joining and contacting a terrorist organization (ISIS), for 15 additional days pending investigation. The suspect will then be referred to the high criminal court.

The Bahraini authorities said that the suspect was introduced to an ISIS member in Bahrain in 2011 through his brother "who left Bahrain and joined Al-Qaeda in Yemen". In 2012 he met two persons who urged him to attend religious lessons delivered by an ISIS official, the suspect claimed. He also attended the weekly meetings and joined "WhatsApp" group named "raising hands to swear allegiance to Al-Baghdadi", adding that there are 2 persons who fund those who wish to join ISIS militants.

The suspect's lawyer, Shaima Abulaziz, declared that he is a university student who was born in 1996. She further stated that he was arrested a while ago and that she attended two investigation sessions with him and then the phase of renewing his detention pending investigation began. She pointed out that the citizenship of the suspect's brother was revoked and that he fled to join Al-Qaeda in Yemen. The authorities found a flash memory with the suspect that included files related to the terrorist organization; however, he denied any relation to it, stating that it is for his brother and that he did now know anything about the files it comprised of.

The lawyer stressed that the police found WhatsApp conversations in the suspect's mobile phone and that the Public Prosecution demanded renewing his detention until brining him to trial and completing the investigation.

It is noteworthy that the authorities arrested a group of extremist Sunnis who tried to join the organization, which was added to the terrorist blacklist. They; however, did not announce their names or publish their photos as they usually do when it comes to dissenters demanding democracy.

The Bahraini authorities arrested Saleh Al-Yafie on January 16, 2015 and Abdullah Al-Binali, brother of the ISIS preacher Turki Al-Binali, while he was attempting to leave Bahrain using his friend's passport on April 20, 2015.

Omani authorities also turned in Nasser Al-Hajaji and Mohammad Mesaad on May 28, 2015 to the Bahraini authorities.

Accounts of Bahraini ISIS militants showed that these two men were trying to reach "the land of the caliphate".

The authorities also arrested Saleh Al-Balouchi on July 5, 2015 (from his work) and Omar Al-Firi after raiding his house.

The authorities did not comment on the arrests of any of the aforementioned suspects, except for Abdullah Al-Binali which the authorities' claimed was attempting to travel using someone else's passport.

Arabic Issue