authorities wide discretion to issue arbitrary orders to deprive the nationality of activists and government critics. Unlike court-ordered revocations, the MOI’s citizenship revocations are often ineligible for appeal. 21. Since 2012, more than 330 persons have been stripped of their nationality; at least 100 of these were the result of MOI administrative orders, rather than court orders.29 Many of these individuals were subsequently deported, frequently and arbitrarily to Lebanon or Iraq. Some individuals who were deprived of their nationality were residing abroad or had other nationalities, but many were left stateless in Bahrain. Although the government has long used citizenship deprivation as a form of reprisal against activists and opposition leaders,30 the rate of deprivation has dramatically increased in the years since the 2011 protest movement, and especially since 2015.31 According to ADHRB’s data, the government deprived the nationality of at least 31 people in 2012, zero in 2013, 21 in 2014, 209 in 2015, and 73 so far in 2016. As many as 292 of those who have had their citizenship revoked are members of the country’s marginalised Shia majority, including activists, journalists, and some of the community’s most prominent religious figures. For example, in June 2016, the MOI issued a revocation order for Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, widely considered the spiritual leader of Bahrain’s Shia.32 22. Other individuals who have been deprived of their nationality include Husain Abdulla, ADHRB’s Executive Director, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, the Director of Advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD); Ali Abdulemam, a member of the human rights organisation Bahrain Watch; Taimoor Karimi, a human rights lawyer, Abbas Busafwan, a journalist; Dr. Masood Jahroomi, an academic; Shaikh Hasan Sultan, a former opposition parliamentarian; Sayed Ahmed al-Mousawi, an award-winning photographer, Sheikh Hussein Najati, a Shia cleric; and Sheikh Mohammad Hasan Ali Husain Khojasta, another Shia cleric. 33 23. The government has also subjected many of these individuals to other forms of abuse. For example, on 10 February 2014, after Sayed Ahmed al-Mousawi photographed protests, Bahraini authorities raided his home and arrested him and his brother. The security forces disappeared and allegedly tortured al-Mousawi for five days, subjecting him to severe beatings on his genitals, electrocution, and hanging from a door. For the duration of his disappearance, he was stripped naked and forced to stand for long periods of time. Officers did not allow a lawyer to accompany al-Mousawi when they transferred him to the Public Prosecutor. Courts renewed al-Mousawi’s pre-trial detention six times, and he spent over a year in prison without formal charges. In November 2015, a court sentenced him to ten years in prison and revoked his nationality, along with twelve other defendants. Similarly, in April 2011, Bahraini authorities arrested and forcibly disappeared Dr. Jahroomi, who is a member of the Ajam community. The security forces allegedly subjected Dr. Jahroomi to abuse and denied him access to a lawyer. In March 2016, the 29 These figures are derived from a database maintained by ADHRB and its partners. Some notable examples are: 1996, Dr. Mansoor Al-Jamri, political activist living in exile, Dr. Saeed Al-Shehabi, political activist in 1981, Dr. Abdulhadi Khalaf, former MP, 1978. 31 For more information, see: Aljazeera, Protests mark fourth anniversary of Bahrain uprising, 2014, access at http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/protests-mark-fourth-anniversary-bahrain-uprising150214074700114.html 32 BBC, Bahrain revokes top Shi cleric citizenship, 2016, access at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east36578000 33 For more information on these cases, see the Annex to this submission. 30