Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, regarded as the spiritual voice of Bahrain’s Shiite majority, risks deportation if he leaves his home for treatment.
For months, the most important cleric among Bahrain’s Shiite majority has stayed home, threatened with deportation by the kingdom’s ruling Sunni minority under a 2016 order revoking his citizenship.
Simmering political tensions in Bahrain over that order escalated abruptly on Monday with news that the cleric, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, is suffering a health crisis.
Human rights activists said Ayatollah Qassim, the spiritual voice of Bahrain’s Shiites, required urgent hospitalization for an emergency operation to repair a hernia.
It was unclear, however, if that will be permitted. His supporters say the deportation order has effectively kept the cleric under house arrest.
“There are fears he will be deported if he leaves his home,” said the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, a British-based organization that has been monitoring the events in Bahrain.
In a statement, the organization said Ayatollah Qassim, who is in his 70s and has other health problems, including high blood pressure and diabetes, was “in continuous pain and excreting blood.”
The statement said the cleric’s family had implored the police surrounding his home to allow a visit on Sunday by doctors, who had recommended an emergency operation.
