Bahraini authorities have arrested four US citizens during protests marking the fifth anniversary of a Shiite-led uprising in the kingdom, US and Bahraini authorities said on Monday, drawing condemnation from rights groups.
They include an independent journalist named Anna Therese Day and three members of her camera crew, according to a statement issued by Day’s family.
Police said four US citizens, among them a woman, 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.
Photo: Reuters
“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 said. “The other three were arrested at a security checkpoint in the same area.”
The four entered Bahrain between Thursday and Friday last week and “provided false information to concerned authorities” claiming to be tourists, police said.
“Some of those arrested had carried out journalistic activities without permission from concerned authorities, in addition to carrying out illegal acts,” police added.
The US Department of State said it was aware of reports that US citizens had been arrested in Bahrain, but declined to comment further, citing privacy concerns.
Day’s family said the four were committed journalists and denied they had done anything wrong, calling for their immediate release.
“The allegation that they were in any way involved in illegal behavior or anything other than journalistic activities is impossible,” a spokesperson for the family said in a statement.
Rights groups also criticized their detention, with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists branding Bahrain “one of the worst jailers of journalists in the Arab world.”
“It is sad that the fifth anniversary of the protests is marked by the arrest of yet more journalists in Bahrain,” the committee’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator Sherif Mansour said.
Day is an award-winning journalist who has reported extensively from the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere, and her work has been featured in news outlets including the New York Times and CNN.
Bahrain said the case of the four detainees has been referred to the public prosecution.
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