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Tuesday, November 6, 2012 at 13:12 | James Miller in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2205 GMT: Bahrain. EA's John Horne reports:
The Bahrain government has revoked the citizenship of 31 Bahrainis who are members of the opposition. The individuals include opposition leader Dr Saaed Shehabi, former AlWefaq MPs Jalal Fairoz and Jawad Fairooz, academic Abdulhadi Khalaf, and Ali Mushaima, the son Hussan Mushaima, leader of Haq and current political prisoner. In a statement published by Bahrain State media, listing the names, the Interior Minister claims it was done on grounds of "state security".
Bahrain expert Marc Owen Jones notes that Twitter account @7areghum tweeted the names before state media:
In true #Bahrain style, cyber vigilante @7areghum tweets list of 31 activists deprived of citizenship before the state news agency does
— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) November 6, 2012
This is a concerning return to the worst of last years repression. In a recent article, Owen Jones noted that the @7areghum account was still active, despite it being cited in the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report:
Trolling in Bahrain has became so severe that a report commissioned to investigate human rights abuses in the country last year actually mentioned it. In particular, it focused on the actions of @7areghum, a Twitter account that “openly harassed, threatened and defamed certain individuals, and in some cases placed them in immediate danger”. The legal experts charged with compiling the report concluded that @7areghum broke Bahraini law and international law. Despite this, the Bahrain government do not appear to have asked the US government to subpoena Twitter to release information about the account.