In response to allegations made at mosques, at political events and on social media about detainee Rihana Al Sayed Abdullah Salman, the Assistant Undersecretary of Legal Affairs affirmed that Rihana, 38, has been charged with plotting to detonate a homemade bomb during the Bahrain Grand Prix on 20 April 2013. The charge was framed under the terrorism law. She is also charged with forming a network that aimed at hindering the constitution.
The Assistant Undersecretary stressed that the allegations about Rihana are baseless and untrue. The timing of such rumours is circumspect, especially in that she spent more than 3 months in detention and was referred to the court on June 20 and July 11. Her parents and lawyers visited her 10 times (on May 7, 15, 22 and 29, June 6, 12, 19 and July 3 and 10) and no one raised the allegations until now. He said that the case is in court and that the judiciary system will handle it.
The Assistant Undersecretary also stated that some religious sermons and political events are used to spread these false allegations, while the streets witness systematic terrorism even in the holy month of Ramadan. A series of terror acts have been committed by extremists who have been misled by these sermons and events. Up to now the leaders of these events have failed to condemn terrorist acts against police and the community. This includes the failure to condemn the violence that led to the death of policeman Yasser Dheeb on Saturday 6 July in Sitra Wadyan.
He added that many fallacies exist in religious sermons, political events and social media. This misinformation aims at benefiting certain individual but is based on unreliable sources. For example, false allegations about the rape of a girl by policemen were recently made. The facts revealed that no rape had occurred and that the allegations were completely baseless.
He said that the Interior Ministry, upon conducting an investigation and learning the facts, refused to give the allegations more attention than deserved.
He concluded by highlighting the importance of accuracy in information and encouraged the public to seek information from accurate sources.