Activists say the protesters had been taken away from the protest website in a police automobile and later launched.
Kin of dying row and life inmates in Bahrain have held a small protest alongside Pope Francis’s motorcade route calling for the liberty of political prisoners within the Gulf Arab state.
It was not clear if the pope noticed the placards as his motorcade moved from his residence to a college in Isa City the place he later addressed college students and academics. About 30,000 flag-waving worshippers attended an open-air mass on Saturday.
A video of Saturday’s protest, which included a number of girls and youngsters, was posted on-line by the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) and by Bahrain’s dissolved opposition al-Wefaq group.
Hajer Mansoor, the mom of jailed activist Sayed Nizar al-Wadaei, held a placard studying: “Tolerance doesn’t exist for us right here in Bahrain.”
One of many placards learn “Tolerance, Coexistence is a follow not simply slogan. #Free Hassan Mushaima #Free Political Prisoners #Finish Sectarianism”.
Hassan Mushaima, an opposition chief, was given a life sentence in 2011 for anti-government protests, led largely by the Shia Muslim group. The Sunni monarchy cracked down on the unrest.
Within the video, a policeman will be heard telling the demonstrators, who included a small boy, “Should you please, if in case you have calls for, if in case you have something, not on this manner and never on this method”.
A authorities spokesperson stated {that a} group of 9 people had been requested to disperse by uniformed police and “acceded to the request,” based on the Reuters information company.
“No additional motion is being taken on this regard,” the spokesperson stated in a press release, including that there “have been no arrests or apprehensions associated to the Papal go to”.
‘Protesters launched’
Earlier, BIRD stated in a press release that the protesters had been taken away from the location in a police automobile and later launched.
Earlier than the pope arrived in Bahrain on Thursday, households of dying row inmates requested him to talk out in opposition to capital punishment and defend political prisoners throughout the journey.
He did so in his first handle on Friday to authorities authorities and the diplomatic corps.
On Thursday, the primary day of his four-day go to, the pontiff referred to as for an finish to discrimination and human rights violations.
It is important that “basic human rights aren’t violated however promoted”, the pope stated on Thursday on the Sakhir royal palace on his first go to to the Gulf Arab state, the place the Shia Muslim opposition and rights teams accuse the Sunni monarchy of overseeing human rights abuses, a cost authorities deny.
Bahrain was the one Gulf state to see mass Arab Spring upheaval. It has imprisoned hundreds, some in mass trials, for the reason that rebellion.
The dominion has rejected criticism from the United Nations and others over its conduct of trials and detention circumstances, saying its prosecutions had been in accordance with worldwide legislation.
Final 12 months, Bahrain conditionally launched tens of prisoners beneath new guidelines permitting digital monitoring and residential detention as an alternative. Mushaima’s son stated then that his father had declined a conditional launch supply.