Mohamed Al-Buflasa, a Sunni without allegiance to any party, was arrested and detained for merely calling for reform, national development, and the improvement of living standards for all Bahrainis. Mohamed Al-Buflasa, a 36 year old poet, writer and former independent candidate for the Parliamentary elections, was the first Bahraini to go missing after the events of February 15th 2011, having given speech calling for political activism at Pearl Square. He was arrested by the military, and sentenced to two months by a military court. Al-Buflasa is a patriotic Bahraini citizen, with dreams and aspirations for political reform. Al-Buflasa was denied his right to be defended by a lawyer during the trial. He was also not given chance to choose between appointing a lawyer and representing himself. Al-Buflasa told his wife about his sentence over the phone, without mentioning the charges against him. His family have not heard from him for two weeks, and do not know his whereabouts. They were only able to visit him once after the sentencing at Al-Qareen Prison, before they changed his place of detention. His brother Rashed told IHRC: “Mohamed did not support any group. In fact, he was expressing his own views out of patriotism only.” The government is targeting the Sunnis as well as the Shia, who are both protesting on the streets calling for the same demands. The case of Mohamed Al-Buflasa confirms that the Bahraini government is falsely attributing a sectarian nature to the revolution taking place in Bahrain. The slogan “neither Shia, nor Sunni, we are all Bahraini” that is emanating from the streets of Bahrain is a testimony to the non-sectarian nature of the Bahraini revolution. This is the narrative that the Bahraini government wishes to crush. IHRC urges all campaigners to write to the Minister of Interior, Sheikh Rashif Al-Khalifa, calling for the immediate release of Al-Buflasa. IHRC
