Bahrain’s top Shi’ite cleric gets one year suspended jail sentence

Reuters

A court in Bahrain on Sunday convicted the spiritual leader of the country’s Shi’ite Muslims of collecting funds illegally and money laundering and sentenced him to one year in jail suspended for three years, local media reported.

The court also ordered Ayatollah Isa Qassim, who is in his mid-70s, to pay 100,000 Bahraini dinar ($265,266) in fines over the charges, which emanate from the collection of an Islamic tax called Khums, which in Shi’ite Islam is collected and spent by a senior cleric in the interests of the needy.

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