# Rights groups condemn Bahrain’s largest mass trial of Shia clerics in history

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/rights-groups-condemn-bahrains-largest-mass-trial-of-shia-clerics-in-history/
- Published: 2026-11-06T16:42:07+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-06T17:57:38+00:00
- Original publisher: Middle East Eye (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/rights-groups-condemn-bahrains-largest-mass-trial-shia-clerics-history
- Topics: Elections, Politics, World

## Key points

- Bahrain is due to rule on charges against 69 defendants, including 60 clerics.
- Rights groups allege confessions were obtained through torture and coercion.
- Twenty organisations urge releases, dropped charges and an investigation.

## Summary

Bahrain is due to deliver verdicts in a mass trial involving 69 people, including 60 Shia clerics, in what rights groups describe as the largest such trial in the country’s history. The groups say the case raises serious concerns about due process and the treatment of Bahrain’s Shia community.

The defendants face charges including membership of a terrorist group, seeking to overthrow the constitutional regime and promoting Iran’s political ideology. Testimony collected by the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy alleges coercive interrogation and torture, including beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation and threats; 20 rights organisations have called for the detainees’ release, the charges to be dropped where they concern peaceful religious activity, and alleged abuse to be investigated. The case comes amid longstanding tensions following Bahrain’s 2011 crackdown on pro-democracy protests and renewed restrictions on people suspected of links to Iran.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.