Bahrain Mirror: A Bahraini court dissolved on Sunday (July 17, 2016) Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, the largest opposing group in the country and liquidated its funds.

Al-Wefaq's defence panel did not attend the trial, as it has already withdrawn from the case on June 28 after they found it impossible to carry out its legal duty in the light of the very short period and being denied entry to the society's headquarters to obtain required documents.

This case comes after the Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs, Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, filed a case on June 14, 2016 before the civilian court against "Al-Wefaq" and demanded to quickly close Al-Wefaq's headquarters and freeze its movable and immovable assets.

On June 14, 2016, the court shut down Al-Wefaq headquarters, froze its movable and immovable assets and suspended its activities.

The court was presided over by judge Jomaa Mousa and memberships of judges Ashraf Ali Abdulhadi and Mohammad Abdulmajeed and Abdullah Ibrahim as secretariat.

The minister claimed that Al-Wefaq had committed several violations since it was established; it did not respect the Constitution and challenged its legitimacy, advocated violence, supported terrorist groups, called for foreign interferences, challenged the legitimacy of legislative authority, used worship places for practicing politics, attacked the judiciary authority and disobeyed the law.

The Minister of Justice had already brought forth a case against Al-Wefaq for committing several violations; including holding its conferences in worship places and the voidance of its 4 general conferences due to lack of quorum, not committing to the publicity and transparency of measures in holding its general conferences. The administrative court suspended Al-Wefaq activities in October 2014 for three months and the court of appeals upheld the sentence.

Arabic Version