Bahrain Mirror: In response to the Bahrain government's decision to restore the authority of the domestic intelligence service, the National Security Agency, to make arrests, Freedom House issued a statement on its website.

"Bahrain giving its intelligence agency authority to make arrests is an alarming expansion of police powers and more evidence that the Kingdom is not committed to reform," said Dokhi Fassihian, senior program manager for Middle East and North Africa programs.

Fassihian went on to say, "Bahrain should reverse this decision, halt its unjust harassment and detention of human rights defenders, and put into force the recommendations offered by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry."

Kingdom of Bahrain had restored the ability of its domestic spy agency to make arrests related to "terror crimes", which thus violated a key reform requested in the aftermath of its crackdown. The state-run Bahrain News Agency wrongly reported that the government was only "restricting" the nature of these arrests to terror crimes, rather than actually expanding the agency's powers.

Arabic Version