Bahrain women arrested in sit-in released, says UN

Jun 16, 2011
Bahrain women arrested in sit-in released, says UN

UNITED NATIONS – THREE young women arrested by Bahraini police while holding a sit-in protest on Wednesday at the UN offices in Manama have been released, the United Nations said.

‘The United Nations Development Programme in New York has been advised that three women who conducted a peaceful protest at the organisation’s offices in the capital Manama have been released by police and that charges will not be pressed,’ the UNDP said in a statement.

It said the UNDP had made ‘urgent representation to Bahrain’s authorities to release the three women,’ and that the UN agency has ‘launched a formal investigation into how the incident at its office was handled’.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights had said on its website that the women, including Ms Zaineb al-Khawaja, daughter of activist Abdelhadi al-Khawaja, were detained three hours into their sit-in.

They were protesting against the arrest of family members and delivered a letter to UN chief Ban Ki Moon calling for their release, it said.

Bahraini authorities in mid-March crushed a month-long protest movement on the streets led by Shi’ite demonstrators calling for democratic reform in the Sunni-ruled state. — AFP ..source