Hezbollah Slams Bahraini Regime’s Verdict against Ayatollah Qassem

In a statement released by the party’s Media Relations office, Hezbollah said the ruling is a new crime in the series of crimes committed by the Al Khalifa regime against the tolerant and long-suffering people of Bahrain.
 
“This unjust rule against prominent Shiite scholar in Bahrain- which also targets the Khums ritual aimed at receiving money to give it to poor people and orphans- is a mark of disgrace on the face of this regime,” the statement said.
 
The Bahraini court issued the verdict on Sunday sentencing Ayatollah Qassim, the spiritual leader of Bahrain’s dissolved opposition bloc, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, to one year in prison, suspended for three years, and ordered him to pay a fine of 100,000 Bahraini dinars (over $265,000). The court also ordered Ayatollah Qassim, who is in his mid-70s, to pay 100,000 Bahraini dinars ($265,266) in fines over the charges, which emanate from the collection of Islamic tax called Khums, which in Shiite Islam is collected and spent by a senior cleric in the interests of the needy
 
Hezbollah in his statement said meanwhile, that the verdict comes as the “Bahraini King was meeting with Donald Trump (in neighboring Saudi Arabia) during which he obtained US President’s total support to suppress the Bahraini people.”
 
“As we condemn the new verdict, which is an addition to the previous dangerous decision by the authorities to strip Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassem of his nationality, we salute the steadfast Bahraini people who rushed to defend their religious reference, dignity and rights,” Hezbollah said in the statement.
 
The Lebanese resistance party also called upon Muslim governments, scholars, figures and people to support the Bahraini people in order to attain their rightful demands.