Gulf group urges Bahrain to release activists

The statement also urged Bahrain to allow the detainees to defend themselves, ensure full rights in accordance with international standards and allow representatives of international rights bodies to visit them.
Bahrain charged 23 Shiite activists earlier this month with forming a "terror network" aimed at bringing down the Sunni-dominated government. Two of the activists are in London and were charged in absentia.
The Gulf Group said it followed with "grave concern" the clampdown in Bahrain and the "arrest, detention and torture" of political and rigths activists under the counter-terrorism law.
It said the detainees have been charged with forming a terror network although most of them are "well-known rights and political" personalities who belong to peaceful public organisations.
The Gulf Group also criticised a decision to suspend the board of the Bahrain Human Rights Society.
Amnesty International on Thursday accused the authorities in Bahrain of an intensifying "clampdown... on Shiite opposition and human rights activists in the run-up" to October 23 parliamentary elections.
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