Manama, Bahrain - Bahraini authorities Monday briefly detained and questioned one of two opposition Shiite clergymen wanted for their alleged role in spearheading a march earlier this month, which ended in clashes.
Sheikh Mohammad Habib al-Mugdad said he was detained by police, with his charity organization offices being stormed by heavily-armed police executing the arrest warrants issued a day earlier against him and Sheikh Mirza Al Mahroos.
Al Mahroos is expected to be questioned on Tuesday.
"I was questioned about the proceeding that left from the mosque to visit a youth at a nearby hospital after he was shot and injured by police," Sheikh al-Mugdad told the German Press Agency dpa.
The march took place on July 9 following evening prayers at Al Sadiq mosque. Scores of people had joined the two clergymen to a nearby hospital to visit the injured youth.
Anti-riot police moved in to disperse the march and briefly clashed with those taking part in it, before chasing some of them inside the hospital.
Sheikh al-Mugdad was slightly injured and requiring treatment at the same hospital after he was hit in the back with a rubber bullet.
"The charges centered on unlawful gathering and calling for an unauthorized march and I have denied the charges. The public prosecutor took my statement and then released me," he told dpa.
Al-Mugdad said he had demanded that charges against the interior minister over his injury be pursued, but the proesecutors refused.
"That is why I refused to sign the last page of my integration and will move ahead with plans to sue the minister in courts outside Bahrain if the local courts refuse to consider the case," he said.
On Sunday, a statement by the Public Prosecution office said that the warrants for the two clergymen had been issued after they failed to adhere to summons issued for questioning.
The two clergymen, who arrived at the prosecution office accompanied by their lawyer on Sunday, left after they waited for an hour to be questioned. Prosecutors said that they were half an hour late.
The statement also cited testimonies from officers indicating that the two had lead the July 9 protest.
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