Bahraini Shia Cleric freed after spending one year behind bars

Bahrain’s Shia cleric Sayyed Mohieldin Al-Mashaal walked out of prison on Wednesday after spending one year behind bars. 

Bahrain’s Shia cleric Sayyed Mohieldin Al-Mashaal walked out of prison on Wednesday after spending one year behind bars.

Al-Mashaal was arrested last August along the causeway connecting Bahrain with neighboring Saudi Arabia before being accused of “inciting hatred against the regime”.

The charges were based on a sermon that the cleric delivered a few months prior to his arrest.

But Manama’s critics say that the allegations were politically-motivated and part of the regime’s clampdown on Bahrain’s Shiite majority.

Dozens of Shia clerics have been detained and sentenced to prison terms on similar charges.