Bahrain Announces Release of Detainees, Lifting of Night Curfew

MANAMA, Bahrain, May 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bahrain has released 515 detainees since the State of National Safety was declared in March, according to Gulf Daily News. Bahrain also announced the daily curfew has also been lifted.

The head of the Bahrain media authority, Shaikh Fawaz Bin Mohammad Al Khalifa, said some of the detainees have been allowed to go home on humanitarian grounds while others were freed following their participation in the unrest that hit the country.

Bahrain is also holding 46 medical staff members on criminal and misdemeanor charges, Shaikh Fawaz said.

Several international organizations have accused Bahrain of arresting doctors for treating injured protestors and of using Salmaniya Medical Complex, the country's largest hospital, as bait to detain injured demonstrators.

The government has repeatedly rejected the charges, however, asserting that the medical and paramedical staff had been arrested for "criminal" actions and for turning the hospital into a centre for anti-government activities.

Bahrain on Monday lifted the night curfew it imposed in the middle of March on either side of a highway in Manama, citing normal security levels.

The state of national safety, declared also in mid-March following weeks of political turmoil and intense unrest, is to be lifted on June 1, two weeks ahead of the scheduled three-month period.

SOURCE Kingdom of Bahrain