Bahraini authorities have arrested four Americans during Shiite protests. This is marked as the fifth anniversary of a Shiite-led uprising in the kingdom, US and Bahraini authorities claimed, which drew condemnation from rights groups.
According to The Guardian, four American journalists were arrested on Sunday during protests, which is marking the fifth anniversary of a Shia-led uprising in Bahrain. These journalists have been charged and released, a prosecutor has said.
Freelance reporter Anna Day and her camera crew were charged with illegally assembling with intent to commit a crime. A friend of Anna Day had stated that the journalists were simply doing their job and denied that they took part in any "illegal behavior".
CNN reported that the reporter has only done freelance work for the network and other news outlets. Providing new details, Bahrain's Police Media Center stated that the arrests began when police detained a masked man who was near "rioting and vandalism" in an area where security forces were also being attacked.
Police claimed that the four Americans were arrested around the Shiite town of Sitra on Sunday during clashes between security forces and protesters, in a statement published by the official Bahrain News Agency."One of them was masked and taking part with a group of saboteurs in Sitra in acts of rioting and sabotage and attacks on security officials," it wrote. "The other three were arrested at a security checkpoint in the same area."
The four entered Bahrain between February 11 and 12 and "provided false information to concerned authorities" claiming to be tourists, police stated. They also added, "Some of those arrested had carried out journalistic activities without permission from concerned authorities, in addition to carrying out illegal acts."
The police, additionally, started to question the three other Americans, who were nearby and police determined that they had been "carrying out media activities without receiving the permit from the competent authorities," as Gulf News mentioned.
A prosecutor in Bahrain also recently issued a statement stating that the four have been "released on Tuesday afternoon." The prosecutor also added, "It wasn't immediately clear if they could leave the island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia."
Meanwhile, although the US State Department was aware of the reports that four Americans had been arrested in Bahrain, it declined to comment further, citing privacy concerns. But Day's family claimed that the four were committed freelance journalists and denied that they had done anything wrong during the incident.
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