Bahrain Mirror:  Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement issued on Monday (June 20, 2016) that the decision to strip Sheikh Isa Qassim of his citizenship "takes Bahrain into the darkest days it has seen since the protests and crackdown of 2011."

"The Bahraini authorities are shutting the door on political reform, while simultaneously stoking dissent. These actions should be met with serious consequences, not expressions of concern," it added.

Bahrain's Interior Ministry announced in an statement on Monday the country's top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim was stripped of his citizenship.

The latest move by the Bahrain regime against the country's main political and religious opposition figures comes amid a heavy clampdown launched by the Al Khalifa regime against the the opposition, represented by the Shiite majority.

Last week, the government suspended the main Shia opposition party, al-Wefaq, accusing it of having links to foreign terrorists and inciting hatred. Sheikh Ali Salman, al-Wefaq's secretary-general, was arrested in 2014 on charges of inciting violence. His prison sentence was more than doubled to nine years on appeal last month.

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