Four U.S. journalists have arrested, questioned and released in Bahrain after being accused of illegally entering the country and gathering with the goal of committing a crime.
Bahrain police said that the four were detained and "suspected of offences including entering Bahrain illegally having submitted false information to border staff, and participating in an unlawful gathering," reported Al Jazeera. The police also alleged that one of the journalists took part in an attack on Bahraini officers.
The arrests were made on Sunday and the journalists were released on Tuesday, Feb. 14, the anniversary of the island nation's 2011 uprising.
One of the journalists has been identified as Anna Therese Day, an American freelance journalist from Boise, Idaho, who has contributed to The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast in the past.
The Arabic Mira'at al-Bahrain (Bahrain Mirror) noted that the four were covering clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Sitra, a Shi'ite village east of Manama, when they were arrested, according to Reuters.
The Interior Ministry of Bahrain alleged in a statement that one of the four journalists "was wearing a mask and participating in attacks on police alongside other rioters in Sitra. At least some of the arrestees were in the country as members of the international media but had not registered with the concerned authority and were involved in illegal activities." No explanations were given regarding the nature of the activities.
The four were released after they were charged, though it is not clear from the prosecutors' statement whether they could leave the country off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Nawaf al-Awadi, chief prosecutor of Manama, said in a statement that the journalists were freed "pending the completion of the investigation," reported the Associated Press.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international advocacy group, commented on the incident. "It is sad that the fifth anniversary of the 2011 protests has been marked by the arrest of yet more journalists in Bahrain, which has since become one of the worst jailers of journalists in the Arab world," said Sherif Mansour, the committee's Middle East and north Africa program coordinator.
