Political party calls on Bahraini authorities to drop blacklist
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10116317.html
04/06/2007 01:03 AM | By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama: Al Wefaq, Bahrain’s largest parliamentary bloc, was up in arms yesterday at the interior ministry after its leader Shaikh Ali Salman was temporarily held at the Kuwaiti border.
“What happened to Shaikh Ali was humiliating, and the ministry of interior should fully assume the responsibility of the degradation Bahraini citizens face at border entry points,” Hussain Al Daihi, the deputy secretary-general of the religious and political society, said in a statement to Gulf News.
Political party calls on Bahraini authorities to drop blacklist
http://archive.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10116317.html
04/06/2007 01:03 AM | By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama: Al Wefaq, Bahrain’s largest parliamentary bloc, was up in arms yesterday at the interior ministry after its leader Shaikh Ali Salman was temporarily held at the Kuwaiti border.
“What happened to Shaikh Ali was humiliating, and the ministry of interior should fully assume the responsibility of the degradation Bahraini citizens face at border entry points,” Hussain Al Daihi, the deputy secretary-general of the religious and political society, said in a statement to Gulf News.
“We will not let the matter pass without taking legal action against the ministry which has not responded to our repeated calls to drop the blacklist against Bahraini nationals.”
Shaikh Ali, who was in a group of six Al Wefaq members travelling to Kuwait, was denied entry into the country because his name has been blacklisted by Bahraini authorities since March 18, the society said in its statement.
Shaikh Ali was eventually allowed into Kuwait after several Kuwaiti parliamentarians pressed for his right to enter the emirate, the statement said.
Bahraini officials have repeatedly denied that they blacklisted nationals, saying that denying people entry into any Gulf country was a sovereign decision. According to Al Wefaq, the ban on their leader was a continuation of a process that included not allowing Al Wefaq arbitration commission chairman Jasem Al Khayyat to enter Kuwait from Iraq last month where he attended a religious commemoration.
He said upon his return that he would sue the interior ministry for keeping his name on a blacklist and for causing him distress after he was left in war-torn Iraq for several days.
Mohammad Yousuf Al Mezel, Member of Parliament, said that the special passports handed to deputies were not significant in preventing decisions to deny entry into other countries. “What are the benefits of the cooperation treaties signed by the Gulf countries when we witness such cases? Is it right to reach such a deplorable state after the Gulf countries held 27 summits?” he asked.
